London shares recovered in afternoon trading, following another day of wild swings on the FTSE 100 index of leading shares.

At the start of the day it looked liked the FTSE would follow Wall Street downwards following a nervous week on the world's stock markets.

However the US market got off to a great start when trading opened on Friday, and helped reverse the negative sentiment that had engulfed London dealers.

The FTSE-100 closed for the weekend up 15.8 points at 5581.9.

Flour maker McBride warned that trading was tough and announced 200 job cuts, causing its shares to slump 34p to 121p.

However other retail stocks did better.

Shares in Miss Selfridge to Freemans catalogue group Sears shot up 21p to 233p amid renewed takeover speculation.

Sears' denial of a newspaper report that it had been approached by a venture capital company offering at least 300p per share, did nothing to dampen traders enthusiasm for the stock.

Engineering group Widney - up 6p at 42½p - said it had received an approach from a potential buyer.

Lex Services sold a 50% stake in Lex Vehicle Leasing to the Halifax for £162.5m helping the group's shares to rise 32½p to 425p.

The prospect of an imminent defence merger or alliance caused GEC's shares to rise 29p to 534p.

Electrical retailer Dixons looks set to rejoin the FTSE 100 next week after nine months, when FTSE International meet to decide the latest quarterly changes to the stock market indices.

And tobacco companies Imperial Tobacco and Gallaher Group may finally join the FTSE 100 after knocking on the door at various intervals over the last year.