Talk Global Infrastructure Partners is poised to bid for United Utilities Instead, Andrew Garthwaite's team of strategists told clients to buy "cheap international earners," such as Shire and Smiths Group. Shire rose 17p to £20.88 and Smiths perked up 21p to £12.38. Credit Suisse's strategy team also said it was trimming its overall position in UK stocks. "The FTSE 100 is a defensive market (by sector composition) and thus tends to underperform [compared to other stockmarkets] when economic lead indicators and global equity markets rise," said Mr Garthwaite. The FTSE 100 pretty much marked time, slipping 1.81 points to 6179.17, after trading within a narrow range for most of the day. The FTSE 250 fell 36.80 points to 12958.14. Pearson, publisher of the Financial Times, was a poor performer as some brokers began reducing their profit forecasts following the worse-than-expected company figures earlier in the week. Nomura, for example, cut its earnings per share estimate by 5pc for 2013 and by 4pc for 2014. Pearson gave up 21p to £11.81. BP was also in the doldrums as Royal Bank of Canada reduced its rating on the company to "sector perform," mainly on valuation grounds. The shares eased 3½ to 455½p. However, BG Group was in demand. The shares climbed to the top of the FTSE 100 leaderboard after Bloomberg argued the oil and gas group is a takeover target following a significant decline in the company's share price over the past couple of years. Jane Coffey, who manages £12bn as head of UK equities at Royal London Asset Management, told the newswire: "There is a big danger that some opportunistic big company will come along and get the assets very cheaply." BG Group gained 25½p to £11.45. Barclays dropped 1.3 to 296p despite Morgan Stanley reiterating its "overweight" rating on the bank. Chris Manners, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, said: "We see potential for a re-rating above tangible book value... as the market begins to focus on the prospect of it beating its cost of capital." Elsewhere in the banking sector, Standard Chartered fell 27p to £16.37. On a more positive tack, Kingfisher and Next performed well as Exane BNP Paribas published a bullish note on both companies, raising its target prices on the retailers. It upped Next by 8pc to £40.00 and Kingfisher from 320p to 350p. Next shares rose 61p to £40.31 and Kingfisher put on 4.1 to 273p. Having fallen during Monday's session after a UBS downgrade, Diageo perked up 16½p to £18.36 after Nomura advised clients to "buy" because the broker reckons the shares are cheap. The drinks giant also delivers interim results next week and Ian Shackleton, an analyst at Nomura, said he expects Diageo to "report robust performance." Ocado topped the FTSE 250 leaderboard on news that Sir Stuart Rose, former chief executive of Marks & Spencer, is becoming chairman of the online grocer. The shares rose 5.9 to 101p. William Hill ticked up 1.2 to 351p as analysts at stockbroker Davy valued Playtech's stake in William Hill Online, which the London-listed bookmaker is seeking to buy outright, at £376m. William Hill, which has a call option to buy the stake this year, has appointed NM Rothschild to value the stake before it enters into negotiations with Playtech. Fund manager Henderson Group lost 4¾ to 154p after the broker downgraded it to "sector perform." Peter Lenardos, an analyst at RBC, said: "We believe that Henderson is approaching fair value after a strong run." Rightmove was in demand as UBS upgraded it to "buy" and raised its price target to £18.00 from £16.00, reflecting the broker's increased confidence in the property website generating a better performance as the housing market picks up in 2013. Alex Hugh, an analyst at UBS said: "2012 trading was strong ... we expect this to persist through 2013. We do not see any change in the competitive backdrop. [Competitor] Zoopla may have seen a honeymoon period following its merger [with Globrix.com], but Rightmove's dominance looks unchanged to us. The average visit to Rightmove is well over double the time of Zoopla visits - a potential sign of quality of leads emanating from the sites. Rightmove shares increased 44p to £15.99.