Market Report: Elliott sells chunk of computer games chain Game Digital

News that vulture fund Elliott Management sold a chunk of computer games chain Game Digital this week is no reason for investors to think it is also time to quit the retailer.

Yesterday it emerged star fund manager Neil Woodford and his old shop Invesco have both upped their stakes. Mr Woodford now has more than 5 per cent and Invesco nearly doubled its stake to 12.5 per cent.

Elliott rescued the group in 2012, shuttering shops and slashing jobs before listing it in June at 200p. It has so far cashed in £160m worth of shares in two years. But even after Elliott’s sell-off this week, it still retains 48.3 per cent of the business. Game failed to attract new interest however and slipped 2p to 266p.

Other than the listing of Chinese internet giant Alibaba, most of the market was still obsessed by Scotland. Even after a No vote the City was worried. Tony Cross, analyst at Trustnet Direct, said: “After the initial jubilation, traders have been wary of getting too excited. Perhaps most telling is the fact that the pound has retreated from earlier highs – the legislative concessions that have been promised mean that once again there’s uncertainty and as we well know, this isn’t what the markets want to see.” The FTSE 100 ticked up 18.63 points to 6,837.92.

Some Scottish stocks held on to early gains and Royal Bank of Scotland soared 8.8p to 366.6p. But miners were on the back foot as metal prices weakened and gold miner Randgold Resources lost 75p to 4,355p, Rio Tinto fell 50.5p to 3,179p and Australia-based BHP Billiton eased 23p to 1,793.5p.

Market chatter about takeover interest often reappears for two retailers in the blue-chip index – Marks and Spencer and Sainsbury’s have both been the subject of various rumours over the years and yesterday vague talk about interest in M&S pushed it 9.5p higher to 435.3p.

Over on AIM, African Minerals set out its recovery plan and the group, which counts colourful entrepreneur Frank Timis as chairman, rose 2p to 26p.

Green technology group Clean Air Power warned trading has been “very challenging”. Its shares fell 34.12 per cent to 3.12p.