Market Report: Rumours of bid from Budweiser brewer AB InBev for SABMiller

More dismal Chinese industrial data was exacerbated by research from Investec

Rumours of a sweeter bid from Budweiser brewer AB InBev for SABMiller made the Peroni maker’s shares look even tastier to investors.

SABMiller, 46.5p better at 3,634.5p, topped the blue-chip index, with gossip from the City hinting that a bid of 4,500p would not be out of the question.

Calculations by RBC Capital suggest AB InBev could afford up to 4,200p a share. Its analysts said: “We wonder if the fact that its approach has been made public will make it harder for ABI’s management to maintain financial discipline, if it has heightened investors’ and analysts’ concerns around the company’s ‘go it alone’ revenue growth.”

The worst ever day for Glencore, which crashed 28.6p or 29 per cent to a record low of 68.62p, and a bruising session for miner Anglo American, 62p or 10 per cent cheaper at 552.7p, dragged the FTSE 100 150.15 points or 2.5 per cent lower to 5,958.86.

More dismal Chinese industrial data was exacerbated by research from Investec, which claimed “nearly all the equity value of Glencore and Anglo American could evaporate” if commodity prices remain depressed.

Shell, down 42.5p to 1,514.5p, joined the long list of blue-chip losers after the oil giant revealed it had pulled the plug on its controversial Arctic exploration campaign.

The end of talks over asset swaps between John Malone’s Liberty Global and Vodafone, which could have seen Virgin Media pass to the latter, put the spark into rival broadcasters ITV, up 2.3p to 250.5p, and Sky, 7p higher at 1,041p.

Speedy Hire, 5.75p worse off at 31.25p, issued its second profit warning in three months.

A 35 per cent decline this year from Home Retail has made the Argos owner a bargain, according to Cantor Fitzgerald’s scribblers. Their upgrade to buy lifted the shares 2.8p to 136.3p.

Meanwhile, Petroceltic advanced 1p to 61p after the Irish High Court granted an injunction preventing rebel shareholder Worldview, run by Angelo Moskov, from holding an extraordinary general meeting to vote on its controversial $175m (£115m) bond.