As anticipated, mortgage bank Bradford & Bingley will be dropped from the FTSE 100 index after last week's quarterly reshuffle.

The change will take place on September 20. Under the rules of the FTSE committee a company will be automatically relegated if its share price ranks outside the top 110 stocks on the review day.

Bradford & Bingley will be replaced in the index by this year's oil exploration success story, Cairn Energy. For shareholders, there is no cause for concern as the price has risen by 18 per cent since July and there is no evidence to suggest the share price will be adversely affected.

Meanwhile, in response to recent press speculation, property and financial group, Countrywide PLC has confirmed it is in talks with the demoted company regarding the potential acquisition of Bradford & Bingley Estate Agents and Securemove Property Services Ltd.

Still in the banking sector, Banco Santander Central Hispano cut its 16-year relationship with Royal Bank of Scotland in an attempt to ease its bid for Abbey National.

As mentioned last week, the Spaniards are keen to speed up the process and a spokesman said the bank is confident its £8.2 billion offer will be cleared by the European Commission by September 17.

The property entrepreneur Jack Petchey, through his company Trefick Ltd, has tied up more of his assets in the Bradford-based shoe shop company Stylo. Mr Petchey makes a habit of holding large stakes just below the 30 per cent level required to make a formal takeover offer.

His recent acquisition was reported to the stock exchange on September 8 and is not likely to be a prelude to a takeover.

Belgravium Technologies released its interim results last week. The designer and manufacturer of real-time data capture systems reported pre-tax profit in the six months to June of £393,000, an increase of £6,000 on the same period last year. Sales climbed ten per cent and the dividend was increased to 0.13 pence. The results were in line with expectations and the chairman, John Kembery, expects this trend to continue for the second half results.

Talks have been terminated between Leeds Group PLC and several parties looking to buy its two businesses Hemmers-Itex and Leeds Leasing.

The company said Leeds Leasing's full-year profits will not be in line with current market expectations, although trading at Hemmers-Itex continues to be satisfactory. The Yeadon-based company will review a number of opportunities for enhancing the value of the businesses and possible disposal routes for the longer term.

On the day of the announcement the share price reacted by falling 4.5p to 15.5p. Earlier this year Leeds Group tried, without success, to sell the company as a whole. The group said that following the successful integration of the Itex customer base Hemmers-Itex continues to increase profits.