Helphire Group specialises in providing assistance to those involved in road accidents, mainly through renting vehicles to motorists whose cars are being repaired. Its shares were given a helping hand of their own yesterday amid speculation the company was set for a takeover approach by an unnamed suitor. The shares didn't rise to the 80p gossips had assigned to the bid, but still closed up a healthy 8.6 per cent at 60p. The rise also marks a recovery following Helphire's news of a swing to a full-year £149m loss last week.

The “Yanks, no thanks” policy of past Nobel literary prize juries will be written out of the script of the 2009 award, to be announced tomorrow.

The giant is coming down the beanstalk again – after a few months when tennis, golf and cricket have held sway, the Premier League returns, crushing all in its size 12 boots. And as far as betting is concerned, it has now swatted aside punters' more traditional pursuits – horse racing, greyhounds, golf. For in the nation's high-street bookies today, the bulk of the money going down will be football bets, and their ever-increasing "derivatives".

Ladbrokes yesterday said its online gambling operation was moving offshore. It follows a similar move announced by rival William Hill.

The FTSE 100, which managed to stay afloat with a 9.52 point nudge northwards in the session before, finally came off the boil last night, relaxing by 1.3 per cent or 57.29 points to 4,528.84 and snapping a 11-session winning streak.

BAE Systems was held back last night as Goldman Sachs suggested that investors "sell" into a prospective share price rally next week.

Bookmakers suspended betting on a match involving two top 100 players at the Ordina Open in the Netherlands on Monday after "a sudden and suspicious" swing in odds during "an industry-wide gamble".

Profits at Ladbrokes, the UK's biggest bookmaker, tumbled by more than a third in the first four months of 2009 after it took a beating at the Cheltenham Festival in March and Premier League football matches.