Market Round Up: Valentine's massacre as City dumps Hampson

That's especially true when, as in the case of Hampson Industries, you have announced you are open to suitors.

The troubled engineer today put itself up for sale, but the response from punters was deeply underwhelming.

In fact, the group - which supplies tools and components to Boeing and Airbus - shed two-fifths of its share price, plummeting 3p to 4.53p on the fledgling index.

There are a number of reasons why Hampson may not quite be the perfect catch, not least its warning that issues with a major tooling order will push back a number of deliveries until next year.

The problem, said traders, was that the company did not give any clues to how much its profits and revenues for 2012 would be hit.

There is also the issues of its £54.9 million net debt, which the group is trying to refinance.

Although a significant improvement from September when it stood at nearly £90 million, this is still over four times greater than its market cap after today's fall.

Hampson's share price has been on a steady slide for a number of years now, having traded close to 200p back in 2007, and it has shed roughly 85% over the last 12 months.

Still, it wasn't all gloom, with some in the City believing the company has a good chance of attracting a bidder - although the question remains as at what price - while Hampson also revealed it had received expressions of interest in its BHW and India business.

Although the FTSE 100 initially traded lower on Moody's, putting the UK on "negative outlook", the index managed to advance 8.16 points to 5913.86, setting a new, six-and-a-half month high.

The miners were unable to follow, however, as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton dropped 87p to 3,758p and 11.5p to 2071.25p respectively after the two approved a $4.5 billion (£2.85 billion) expansion of their giant Escondida mine in Chile. Both were the subject of revived rumours yesterday that they could be in the market for acquisitions, with vague speculation once again linking Rio to a possible move for Kenmare Resources (down 1.1p to 57.45p) and BHP to Anglo American (down 26.5p to 2791p).

Having dipped more than 13% in just five days, Misys was on the rebound amid reports that the software group - which has agreed an all-share merger with Swiss peer Temenos - has attracted interest from buyout groups. The talk prompted speculation to be reheated that a new approach could be on its way, and with suggestions for a potential price of a bid of 375p a pop, the group ticked up 11.4p to 301.6p.

Elsewhere, Carpetright climbed 30p to 604.25p on rumours that the retailer's founder, Lord Harris, may be mulling over whether to take it private.