The founders of troubled Kazakh miner ENRC have been given more time to come up with a better bid, but the City isn’t convinced a better offer will be made.

Hopes that the Footsie could match the record 11 days of gains last set in July 2009 were lost when weak US jobs data and profit-taking sent the benchmark index into negative territory. The blue-chip index has been flirting with the 6,700 barrier during trading over the past three days, but the chance to push on through this was dashed during the afternoon session. It lost 5.75 points to 6,687.8 after US jobs, manufacturing and housing data disappointed. Despite the dip it is still at levels last seen in November 2007.

While Westminster worried about the scale of an oil price-fixing scandal, the City took a more sanguine view. Tuesday's raid of the oil giants' offices by the European Commission – the start of an investigation into allegations of fixing that could have affected millions of motorists – fuelled fears that the oil majors are facing their very own version of the banks' Libor disgrace.

Punters were tallying up the lucrative order book at Babcock International as they piled in to the engineering group yesterday. The British engineering outsourcer, which started life in 1891 when a US boiler maker opened its first UK office, reported results ahead of expectations, with profits up 30 per cent.

Investors in Standard Chartered were singing the blues yesterday. The Asia-focused banking group's share price fell to the bottom of the pile after punters caught wind that the activist investor Muddy Waters was shorting the stock. Carson Block, founder of Muddy Waters, a US short-seller, said at a hedge fund conference in Las Vegas that he had bought five-year credit default swaps on Standard Chartered. He is betting against the group because of its "deteriorating" loan quality.

Should you be standing with Standard Chartered after last week's less than stellar trading update? The market tells its own story. The shares have been on the skids since it was issued. In fact they've been trending down for a while.

News that the world’s top platinum producer has bowed to union pressure and slashed the number of job cuts it planned has left investors worried about the future of the industry.

A visit by inspectors from North York Moors national park caused jitters in the City yesterday for potash miner Sirius Minerals.

Shares in the bike retailer Halfords were pumped up to a two-year high yesterday on hopes in the City it is now on the right track. The analyst Georgina Johanan at JPMorgan said she thinks the bike and car accessories specialist is putting its "wheels back in motion" with better customer service, more products and a better online business.

The market's newest arrivals continued to impress, with Crest Nicholson, esure and Countrywide all making gains.

All eyes were on ENRC yesterday as the City speculated on the motive behind Russian billionaire Suleyman Kerimov’s stakebuilding in the troubled Kazakh miner. ENRC, which is the subject of a Serious Fraud Office investigation into allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption, has seen its shares fall more than 17 per cent since the claims emerged.

There is no rest for Ivan Glasenberg. His commodity trading giant Glencore International has just completed the long-awaited mega deal – buying the miner Xstrata – but the City is hungry for more. The $30bn (£19bn) takeover was completed yesterday, and the new Glencore shares will begin trading today – Xstrata shareholders get 3.05 shares in Glencore. But this deal is old news for traders and brokers … they want to know what comes next.

Traders have spent this year trying to flush out takeover deals for water groups including Pennon and United Utilities. But yesterday experts at HSBC washed out any hope of M&A, blaming regulatory uncertainty as the cause.