ARGOS parent Home Retail Group ended the day as one of the biggest fallers on the FTSE 250 yesterday despite early session gains prompted by the catalogue retailer’s return to sales and profit growth.

Home Retail rose more than two per cent in early trading but at the close was seven per cent lower as investor attention turned to woes at Homebase following a 52 per cent tumble in the division’s earnings to £11m.

Gains also narrowed on the FTSE 100 Index – ahead 21.2 points at 6451.3 – as the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the US fell due to disappointing economic reports.

US jobs data showed worse-than-expected private sector hiring last month, while there were also weak reports from the construction and manufacturing sectors.

But with most of Europe’s stock markets closed for a public holiday, it was a relatively calm day of trading, while UK blue chips were also helped by hopes for more monetary easing in Europe.

The outcome of the latest meeting of the US Federal Reserve was being announced after the end of the session and the European Central Bank follows today amid market speculation about a possible interest rate cut.

A well-received trading update from Antofagasta helped it and other mining stocks rise initially, after the Chilean copper producer said it remained on track to meet its full-year output target.

But it later fell back by 2.5p to 895p. Analysts said it was among stocks to suffer falls after the US data.

Another miner, Randgold Resources, managed to hold on to some of its early gains, finishing up 50p at 5110p.

Top of the risers board was BT, up 9.5p at 285.7p.

Earlier, it announced a deal with department store Fenwick giving shoppers free, unlimited wi-fi at its 11 department stores.