News of a €3bn (£2.6bn) takeover of a German publisher yesterday pushed punters towards Informa. The world's second-largest publisher of scientific research journals, Springer Science + Business Media, has been bought by the private equity firm BC Partners.

Jet makers were yesterday fighting to show what lucrative contracts they are close to securing at the Paris Air Show, and punters flew in to BAE Systems on hopes it is close to agreeing long-awaited Middle Eastern deals.

Takeover rumours buzzed around the telecoms sector again yesterday, helping Vodafone call up a spot among the blue-chip risers. Vodafone, which is said to be poised to raise its £6bn-plus takeover approach for German cable company Kabel Deutschland, had been nursing losses last week, falling below 180p. But bargain hunters returned yesterday amid speculation that US giant AT&T was linked to an approach for Spain's Telefonica, the owner of British mobile network O2.

Investors may want to toast Majestic Wine's performance but it won't be with an expensive vintage, more a cheap glass of plonk. It will tout the resilience of its business model this week, despite flat profits in the wake of tougher trading for the chain. The wine warehouse retailer will also reaffirm that it plans to open a similar number of stores this financial year to the 16 it introduced last year.

Fighting through the flow of daily commuters arriving in New York City’s Port Authority bus station, a mass of tourists make their way to the third floor of the giant terminal. Some have small handbags filled with cash and cards; others carry giant empty suitcases. They snake through to gate 310 to take the bus to Woodbury Common, one of the world’s biggest outlet malls, selling masses of discount designer brands.

Bargain-hunters who began their spending spree on Thursday afternoon continued yesterday, and decided mining stocks were still a snip as they piled in. The gold miner Randgold Resources was shining toward the top of the benchmark index and added 122p to 4,881p, while Vedanta Resources put on 27p to 1,212p.

The City showed just how capricious it could be yesterday: the market was nearly written-off as another day in the red when buyers came back in looking for bargains during the afternoon session. What would have been the fourth day of falls, prompted by fears of an end to central bank monetary stimulus, was turned around by bargain-hunters who pushed the benchmark index up five points into the green.

The luxury brand Mulberry is pinning its turnaround hopes on new markets in the Far East and US after reporting a 28 per cent slump in annual profits.

The Russian gold miner Polymetal gave one last push to hang on to blue-chip status yesterday, but despite a 1.7 per cent rally, it failed. Polymetal joins a fellow Russian metals group, the steel maker Evraz, who will both shuffle out of the top pack. Last night was the cut-off point for the FTSE Group to declare who is in and who is out of this quarter's reorganisation.

Short sellers in the grocery specialist Ocado got the life squeezed out of them for a second day. The online grocery distribution group was a favourite of the hedge fund community as one to bet against – more than 87 million shares were out on loan in February. But a run of good news, including its distribution tie-up with Morrisons and now rumours that it might be looking at something similar with Marks & Spencer, hasn't helped the shorters' positions. Since the end of last month the number of shares out on loan has fallen by almost 13 per cent.