When a company's second-largest stockholder sells out and the share price drops almost 30% in a day, as was the case for F&C Asset Management yesterday, things look pretty bad on the face of it. But the company has high-profile backers - Nicolas Berggruen, the billionaire value investor, is holding onto his shares.

Dawnay Day, the London-based stockbroker, had built a holding equivalent to 26% of F&C's shares, mainly through derivatives - some of that on behalf of Berggruen. Yesterday, the broker sold 95 million contracts for difference at 100p each, reducing its holding to nothing.