Monday 1 September - 4pm update

Steve Johnson's first day in one of the hardest jobs in retail was met by a surprise jump in the Woolworths share price on talk that suitors were circling the struggling chain.

Johnson took over as chief executive today and is said to be launching a full-scale review of its business model.

But the rumour is that the former High Street institution, now routinely written off as a retail train wreck, could be looking at an offer from its biggest shareholder, Iranian property tycoon Ardeshir Naghshineh, who owns 10.2% of its shares.

Over the weekend, he had expressed his opposition to the £50 million bid from Iceland founder Malcolm Walker and Baugur for Woolies' 815 stores, advising the board to focus instead on reviving the struggling chain.

His statement came as a blow to Walker's ambitions, but provided a fillip to the shares as Naghshineh refused to deny he is planning a bid of his own.

Today's slow trading threw up some crazy rumours, and the most bizarre surrounded Woolies.

The mutter from the gutter was that Alan Sugar was building up a stake, leading to talk, dismissed by some as madness, of a three-horse bid race for the retailer. City sceptics questioned who would be willing to take on such a challenge with the conditions on the High Street looking so gloomy.

But it was enough to boost the shares, which have risen almost 40% since July, gaining 0.24p to 7.5p.

September's trading kicked off on a gloomy note, with the FTSE index looking set to end a three-day winning streak following losses in Asia overnight. It sank 46.4 points to 5590.2, with the heavily weighted banking and mining stocks leading the top flight lower.

Kazakhmys took the wooden spoon, down 82p to 1210p, while Anglo-American was off 158p to 2774p and ENRC was 47p cheaper at 958p.

With the US financial markets closed for Labor Day, trading volumes were light as investors sat cautiously on the sidelines.

Renewed takeover speculation sent RSA Insurance racing to the top of the Footsie leaderboard, climbing 5.9p to 156.7p.

Talk is of an offer from Zurich Financial Services at around the 200p-a-share mark, but some speculators said Zurich may not be alone in looking at the insurer, with Swiss Life mooted as another potential suitor.

Investors are still calling time on the UK's pub chains ahead of what is likely to be a miserable set of trading updates from the sector later in the week.

With consumers reining in spending, and the smoking ban and lack of summer sun hitting sales, traders fear reports from Punch Taverns, Greene King and JD Wetherspoon are set to make grim reading.

But the dire state of the property market rather than concerns over its trading performance did for Enterprise Inns today. Uncertainty over whether it was converting to a real estate trust and the likely impact of the slump in property prices given its high debt levels sparked a sell-off.

Its shares, almost a dead cert to be booted out of the FTSE at the quarterly review this month, have been in freefall in recent weeks and crashed to a record low of 292p, before recovering slightly to trade off 5¼p at 298¼p.

Greene King was down 8½p to 527½p, Punch 31/2p to 288p and Wetherspoon 11¼p at 253¼p.

Phil Edmonds' love affair with AIM shows no signs of cooling. The former England spin bowler turned miner listed his fourth company on the junior market today, in a bid to benefit from the growing market for biofuel.

Bioenergy Africa, which will produce ethanol from sugar cane plantations in southern Africa, raised £8.6 million via a placing of around 21% of the company's share capital. Its shares ticked up 2p to 14½p.