Market Round Up: Misys diving as white knight's slow to show

The software group's proposed merger with rival Temenos has hardly been greeted with an outpouring of support since being announced last week, but its share price has found support on hopes another aggressor may be flushed out.

Yet today the firm was on the slide in the wake of last night's news that several key points of the all-share merger had been agreed, as punters appeared to give up on the possibility of a white knight appearing on the horizon with a cash offer.

Predicting the deal will now occur "on an accelerated basis...making a counterbid less likely", Panmure Gordon's George O'Connor slashed his rating on Misys to hold and cut his target price by 63p to 322p to reflect the lack of a takeover premium.

Similarly downbeat was Merchant Securities' Roger Phillips, who told investors to get rid of their shares as he questioned "whether other options are genuinely available". Not everyone in the City was preparing to give up and vague rumours claiming a counterbid could be around the corner were refusing to go away, with a possible price of 400p a share being mentioned.

Yet Misys, which also revealed its boss Mike Lawrie is on his way out, was still knocked back 23.1p to 303.05p.

Dealers attacked the terms of the proposed merger as disappointing, while Peel Hunt's Paul Morland questioned whether, if Misys' "new software had been progressing as planned... it would not have contemplated a merger with an arch-rival."

Takeover hopes were much livelier around Inmarsat after bid talk returned around the mobile satellite group last night.

The vague speculation claimed US General Electric as well as private equity could be interested in a possible move, and with a price being discussed of 700p a pop, it rose a further 33.7p, or 7.71%, to 471.2p.

With everyone still waiting for news on Greece, the FTSE 100 was again wary of making any significant moves although a small climb of 12.01 points to 5902.27 was enough for it to set a six-month high.

After two days of weakness, higher metal prices meant the heavyweight diggers were rallying, with Kazakhmys advancing 27p to 1187.5p.

Elsewhere, the clear loser of the day was SuperGroup, which, after having climbed over 25% since revealing last month it had enjoyed a strong Christmas, plummeted 112p, or 16%, to 588p as the fashion retailer admitted sales growth had slowed in January.

News of a deal with Facebook saw Bango shoot up over a third on AIM, rising 36p to 134.5p.

A rather coy statement revealed that the online payments firm had signed an agreement with the social networking giant, but further details were scarce.

The group was similarly reticent to provide particulars in December when it announced a tie-up with Amazon.