Wednesday, January 17: the FTSE 100(-0.39%) was marched lower for the third consecutive day, Burberry(-7.70%) following a disappointing Q3 update, and Informa(-5.75%) after the announcement of a proposed takeover of UBM proved to be the main detractors from performance for the FTSE 100.

GKN was higher in early trading after an improved offer of 430.1p from Melrose Industries, but another rebuffing of the offer from GKN management saw the stock fall back slightly. M&A seems to be flavour of the month as Informa also announced a merger deal with Informa, which saw UBM trade 12.51% higher intraday whilst Informa fell (-)6.24% at the time of writing. Informa says their offer represents a 30% premium, and that combined Group ownership will come in at 65.5% for Informa, with the residual owned by UBM.

In the aftermath of the Carillion scandal, Investors and commentators adjusted their focus towards support service provider Interserve, after The Cabinet Office issued a statement regarding a report that it is monitoring the Group. A statement was issued declaring that the financial health of all strategic suppliers is monitored, and that there is no reason to believe existing contractors are in a comparable position to Carillion. Nevertheless, Interserve shares plunged 14.75% through the day following the report, despite the Group addressing investor concerns and highlighting that the business is trading in line.

Across Europe, indices were lower at the close with the FTSE 100 -0.39%, the DAX 30 -0.47% and the CAC 40 -0.36%.