In another uncertain day, with leading shares losing ground again after poor US GDP figures, one of the main risers was InterContinental Hotels.

The group has long been suggested as a possible takeover target for a rival chain, and comments by US group Starwood put the spotlight back on the business. Starwood, with a $14bn market capitalisation, said it had decided to “explore a full range of strategic and financial alternatives to increase shareholder value.” It has appointed Lazard to help with this process and chairman Bruce Duncan said: “No option is off the table.” Of course that could mean a sale of the US business, but it could also mean acquisitions.

And that was enough to push InterContinental 40p higher at £28.44, whether on hopes of it being prey or predator.

Overall the FTSE 100 finished down 84.25 points at 6946.28, ending below 7000 for the first time for nearly two weeks. The disappointing US figures, ahead of the latest Federal Reserve interest rate meeting, suggested that the central bank was unlikely to sanction dearer borrowing in the near term. That hit the dollar, pushed up the euro and left European markets lower, especially Germany’s export heavy Dax which lost more than 3.2%.

On the positive side, a number of companies pleased the market with their results.

Weir, the pumping group which supplies the oil industry, has come under pressure as the plunging crude price prompted cutbacks in investment in the sector. But it added 98p to £18.36 despite announcing a 23% fall in orders from its oil and gas business in the first quarter and plans to cut 125 jobs, mostly in north America. Orders for its mining division were up 5%, and analysts said the outlook was better than had been feared.

Next rose 120p to £72.85 as the clothing retailer reported first quarter sales had risen by a better than expected 3.2% in the first quarter and said it would pay another special dividend.

But miners came under pressure, and investors decided their recent recovery on the back of stronger metal prices might have been overdone. Antofagasta fell 18p to 784p after it cut its annual production forecast and reported lower than expected copper output in the first quarter, down 13.6% from a year ago.

BHP Billiton lost 25.5p to £15.64 while Rio Tinto fell 64p to 2915.5p.

British American Tobacco was down 81p at 3588.5p as first quarter revenues fell 5.8% as more people cut back on smoking and a stronger pound hit its business.

Barclays dropped 4.45p to 256.95p as it set aside another £800m for potential settlements for alleged foreign exchange manipulation.

Elsewhere Vodafone added 0.65p to 230.4p as Berenberg moved from hold to buy and raised its target price from 214p to 270p

Among the mid-caps, Greggs added 79p to £11.55 and home shopping specialist N Brown was 28.1p better at 349.9p after their latest updates.

But Ophir Energy lost 9p to 161.9p as analysts at Stifel moved from buy to sell. Ophir – which bought rival Salamander Energy earlier this year – has been tipped as one possible takeover target in the wake of Shell’s move for BG earlier this month. But analyst Dragan Trajkov said:

While we can understand market exuberance following Royal Dutch Shell’s proposed acquisition of BG, we do not believe that Ophir is itself an attractive acquisition target at present. Firstly, based on our sum of the parts asset valuation we feel that the market has made the shares too expensive for a potential buyer. Secondly, we feel it no longer provides a good strategic fit for a potential acquirer: while its large gas asset in Tanzania could be of interest to an ‘oil major’-type acquirer, we believe the medium size gas project in Equatorial Guinea is more likely to be of an interest to only a ‘mid major’ and the ex-Salamander, relatively small oil producing assets do not fit in a major company portfolio.

Finally Aim-listed Real Good Food rose nearly 30% to 41.5p after it agreed to sell its sugar distribution business Napier Brown for £34m after an auction process, a move which leaves it effectively debt free. It plans to focus on its remaining food ingredients, jam and bakery businesses, which include Whitworths, Renishaw and RW Scott. The company is selling Napier Brown to Tereos, the world’s fifth largest sugar group, putting the business in a better position to cope with an EU decision to end sugar beet quotas from 2017. It already has agreement from shareholders representing 69% of the company for the deal to go ahead.

Real Good Food chairman Pieter Totté said:

The changes taking place within the European sugar market mean that the future of [Napier Brown] is best served by it becoming part of an international production group. This transaction will allow us to focus all our resources on the continued growth of our remaining businesses.

Daniel Stewart analysts said:

Real Good Food experienced a challenging year in the year to 3 March due to the low sugar price which impacted Napier Brown and Garrett Ingredients. However, the rest of the group performed strongly, with Renshaw, the cake decoration business and Haydens Bakery, the high value added hand-finished patisserie and desserts business, in particular, performing well. Looking forward, post the disposal of Napier Brown, the outlook is much improved. In addition, the acquisition of Rainbow Dust Colours, the fast-growing specialist cake decoration and accessories business, in January (revenue £3m; pre-tax margin 57%) further tilts the business towards higher growth and higher margin businesses and is already opening doors for the group in a range of export markets.