London equities markets fell in late morning trade on Monday, under continuing pressure after Friday's late sell-off on Wall Street which followed weaker-than-expected US GDP growth for the third quarter.

The mining sector moved lower as metals prices weakned but bid speculation in the life insurance and media sectors helped contain overall losses.

The FTSE 100 extended its early losses to trade 0.7 per cent, or 40.5 points, lower at 6,120.4 while the mid-cap FTSE 250 lost 0.3 per cent at 10,324.3, a decline of 31 points.

On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 73 points lower at 12,090.3 on Friday, with the Nasdaq Composite 1.2 per cent weaker at 2,350.6.

Standard Life gained of 2.1 per cent to 289p amid renewed bid speculation following areport in the Sunday Express that French rival Axa was preparing a bid for the life insurer.

Axa has been linked to bid speculation elsewhere in the sector with rumours suggesting an interest in Scottish Widows, the life insurance arm of Lloyds TSB. Earlier this year, the French company was forced to issue a statement denuing an interest in Prudential.

Shire was the leading decliner in the FTSE 100, down 2.6 per cent to 942p, after the pharmaceutical company received a number of broker downgrades. Deutsche Bank cuts its price target to £12.72 from £13.30 previously but retained its "buy" recommendation while Baird downgraded its recommendation to "neutral" from "outperform".

Amvescap retreated 2.2 per cent to 590p as the fund manager is highly geared to movements in US asset markets.

Wolseley (NYSE:WOS - news), the world's largest suplier of plumbing materials, fell 1.7 per cent to £12.41, undermined by concerns about the outlook for the US property market after a much steeper-than-expected decline in residential housing investment in the third quarter.

Cadbury Schweppes (NYSE:CSG - news) fell 2 per cent to 526p after the chocolate maker unveiled its new investment strategy for 2007 and beyond. Cadbury said it was targeting revenue growth between 3 per cent and 5 per cent a year but ongoing restructuring charges of around 1 per cent of revenues would be included in underlying operating profits.

The televison broadcaster ITV fell 1.4 per cent to 105¼p on reports that it was considering bidding for rival Scottish Media Group, up 5.8 per cent to 59½p.

Some dealers think that ITV is unlikely to mount a bid as it is without a chief executive currently and it is more likely to be a takeover target with rumours continuing that Greg Dyke, former head of the BBC will lead a consortium of private equity players.

Consolidation is widely expected in the online gaming sector after it was hammered by recent US legislation banning gambling on the internet. 888 Holdings rose 4.4 per cent to 112 ¼ p after it confirmed in was in merger talks, rumoured to be with PartyGaming, up 4.2 per cent at 31¼p.

Mining stock Kazakhmys fell 0.7 per cent to £12.07 after it said third quarter zinc prouction fell 22 per cent due to technical problems at one of its processing plants. Gold and silver output also fell after scheduled maintenance in the period cut capacity.

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