Market report: Smiths and Premier Foods in focus on deal hopes Meanwhile, hopes that Premier Foods may soon update the market about a potential deal for its Hovis bread business pushed its shares up 4¼, or 3.6pc, to 121½p. The company confirmed last month that Ondra Partners had been hired to examine "investment options" for the division, including a spin-off that would see it co-owned with another investor. Investec analyst Nicola Mallard today said that "depending on the progression of talks under way around [the bread unit] with, we understand, several private equity houses, this could provide an interesting near-term catalyst for the stock price." It was another unremarkable day for the FTSE 100, which slid 36.17 points to 6,523.31, erasing all of Monday's meagre 7.49-point gain and more. Comments from a number of US Federal Reserve officials encouraged nervousness that the central bank will scale back its stimulus programme before the end of the year. Among the biggest risers in the benchmark index were precious metals miners Randgold Resources, 164p better at £41.41, and Fresnillo, 14 higher at 756p, on the back of a rally in the price of the yellow metal. In the FTSE 250, up 19 at 15,410.79, Centamin, the gold producer that runs the Sukari mine in Egypt, added 0.51 to 44.82p on news it was buying West Africa-focused digger Ampella, which is listed in Australia, for A$40.9m (£22.8m). Staying with the mid-cappers, chip maker CSR pleased investors by announcing it was to exit the weak digital camera market by closing its so-called "camera-on-a-chip" platform, news that sent its shares up 49½ to 559½p. Wealth manager St James's Place also put on 3½ to 647p in the second-tier index, despite Lloyds Banking Group offloading its 21pc stake in the group for £680m. The disposal, the third sale of St James's Place shares by the state-backed bank, was priced at 630p a piece, a 2.1pc discount to Monday's close. Even so, St James's Place rose today because the sale removed an overhang from the stock. Lloyds, however, drifted 0.04 to 78.16p as the benchmark index slid lower. Staying with changes to shareholdings, Invesco - the biggest investor in outsourcer Capita, power company Drax and defence equipment group Chemring - disclosed it had trimmed its stakes in all three companies. Invesco revealed in October that Neil Woodford, its star fund manager, is to leave in April, prompting speculation that redemptions from his funds would force Invesco to sell down some of its positions. Capita slipped 6 to 999p, Drax edged up 1 to 781p and Chemring rose 5.4 to 206.4p. A day earlier, Invesco said it had offloaded its entire holding in small-capper Assura, unchanged at 38p. Broadcaster ITV, 1.4 lower at 182.2p, also disclosed that it had exited its long-standing investment in Scottish television group STV, down 9½ at 297p. The FTSE 100 company offloaded 2.65m STV shares, a holding that was valued at £7.9m based on last night's closing price. Insurer Prudential was lifted 21p to £12.87 by hopes the company will reward investors by returning capital to shareholders. The group said it planned to generate a minimum of £10bn in cash by the end of 2017. A revival of bid talk around Weir Group lifted the industrial pump maker 60p to £21.32. Tesco slipped 1.7 to 331.95p after analysts at Bernstein Research argued the supermarket group was heading in the "wrong direction" with its strategy. The company has "lost its differentiation" and is "not value, not quality, just everywhere," they claimed. Finally, today's closing prices suggested that Royal Mail, ½ lower at 596½p, and equipment rental group Ashtead, up 26½ at 740p, would be promoted to the FTSE 100 at tomorrow's quarterly index review. They would replace miner Vedanta Resources, down 17½ at 804p and chemicals group Croda, off 34p at £22.68.