The UK's premier share index fell at the end of the trading week as Santa rally hopes faded, but M&A gossip boosted Smith & Nephew.
The FTSE100 finished down 51 points, or 0.83% to 6,052, while across the Pond the Dow Jones is down 265 points at the time of writing. The German Dax is down 130 points at 10,608.
Among the biggest gainers was artificial joint maker Smith & Nephew (LON:SN.) up 4.64% to 1,172p as rumours emerged that US rival Stryker (NYSE:SYK) has tabled a bid for the London listed group.
It came from a source with knowledge of the situation, US market website Street Insider reported. S&N and Stryker both declined to comment.
It comes on the same day pharmaceuticals colossus GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK) agreed two deals with Bristol-Myers Squibb to acquire its late-stage HIV R&D assets and to acquire its portfolio of preclinical and discovery stage HIV research assets. Shares eased 7.5p to 1,334p.
The biggest Footsie loser was BG Group (LON:BG.), down 4% to 908p, but mining stocks BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) and Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) did make up three of the top five firms on FTSE100. The biggest gainer was Anglo American (LON:AAL), up 5.73% to 278.65p.
Joshua Mahony, at IG Index, noted: "Despite seeing a very clear directional response to the Fed’s hike on Wednesday, there are significant market jitters following yesterday’s US led selloff as the promise of a Santa rally threatens to slip away.
"Today marks the end of a busy month for many, with volumes likely to begin fading as we move closer to the bank holidays of Christmas and Boxing Day.
"That being said, there is a clear possibility that traders could continue to trade through the holidays as they take advantage of the highest six-months of FTSE volatility since the second-half of 2011."
In small cap world, shares in Electric Word (LON:ELE) rocketed 25% to 3.75p as it announced it has agreed to sell its 70% stake in online magazine iGaming Business to Clarion Events for around £13.8mln.
The deal values iGB, an online magazine focused on the business-to-business (B2B) online gaming market, at £19.7mln.
Another riser was Proxama (LON:PROX), which also added 25% after shares doubled yesterday.
The firm on Thursday announced a new US$1mln deal with an existing client and revenue doubled in its second half compared to the first.
The firm will provide its Europay, MasterCard, and Visa (EMV) industry standard technology to the unnamed US financial services company as it looks to move to chip-and-pin payments in the US.
The client will use the product to authenticate and process payments to the EMV standard, making sure each one is secure.
Conversely, WH IRELAND (LON:WHI) shares fell almost 11% to 89.5p after it cautioned that a substantial fine from City regulator the FCA is likely.
In a stock market statement it said that it continues to discuss a possible negotiated settlement with the watchdog, relating to what it referred to as a “previously communicated contingent liability” in the period between January and June 2013.