Market Round Up: £2m share sell-off by chief executive has WH Smith sliding

Punters were rushing to follow Kate Swann to the checkout today after it was revealed that the WH Smith boss has cashed in more than £2 million of her shares.

The chief executive - who has been widely praised for her performance since taking charge of the High Street retailer back in 2003 - has sold more than 400,000 of her shares at 550.74p a pop, only a week after its latest trading update. The news prompted the chain to slump 11p to 548.5p, with some in the City suggesting Swann has proved rather adept at selling at the right time and is therefore worth following.

Last night WH Smith closed at its highest price this millennium, having advanced more than 25% over the past nine months alone. But although traders said the announcement wasn't exactly bullish, they also pointed out that the future looks bright, with the group claiming last week that profits will continue to grow despite a recent decline in sales.

Having shot up more than 100 points yesterday, the FTSE 100 was taking a breather today as it slipped 9.97 points to 5780.75. This was despite the heavyweight miners roaring up on news that, after years of rumours and speculation, Xstrata and Glencore International could finally be about to merge.

The Swiss miner was leading the top-tier index, advancing 98½p - or 8.8% - to 1218½p after announcing that the two were in talks. Meanwhile, the controversial commodities trader, which already holds more than a third of Xstrata, was also on the rise, ticking up 20.3p to 452.1p.

Their peers' excitement over the possibility of deal activity in the sector was tempered, however, by fears that they could face a step-up in competition if a tie-up does take place, although Anglo American and Rio Tinto still climbed 82p to 2816p and 67p to 3980.75p respectively.

Forecast-beating fourth-quarter figures from Smith & Nephew prompted the prosthetics manufacturer's takeover potential to be in the spotlight again.

It gained 27.5p to 640.25p as Panmure Gordon's Savvas Neophytou argued that "M&A speculation should provide support" to the stock.

Down on the FTSE 250, takeover hopes were also rising around Shanks Group, with the waste management firm spurting up 10.75p, or 10.77%, to 110.6p, following the reheating of vague speculation that it could be a target for private equity.

Support from analysts was giving the housebuilders a push, with Bovis Homes rising 16.8p to 487.2p after Citigroup upgraded its recommendation to "buy". The broker's scribblers were encouraging on the sector as a whole, claiming that it "will see further decent margin progress in 2012", while Deutsche Bank was also positive ahead of the upcoming results season.

After reports that it was mulling over selling its overseas operations, Game Group moved 0.26p higher at 5.39p as the games retailer confirmed it was reviewing that side of its business.

On AIM, punters' favourite Gulf Keystone Petroleum jumped 15.5p to 294.25p amid optimistic comments in after a presentation by the Kurdistan-focused explorer to investors on the other side of the Atlantic.