Rentokil Initial rose 5¼p to 172¼p after it emerged that ValueAct, the American private equity group, had amassed a stake of more than 3 per cent in the services group.

UBS, the Swiss bank, separately raised its stance on the company from “neutral” to “buy”, underpinned by signs of improved trading in the company’s first-quarter figures, released in May. The target price was raised 10p to 185p.

The FTSE 250 closed up 86.6 points at 11,834.

MicroFocusput in the weakest mid-cap performance after the largest shareholder in the software group placed a 7 per cent stake. Golden Gate Private Equity, which had held 42 per cent of MicroFocus’s shares, placed 14 million through UBS at 260p apiece, raising £36.4 million. MicroFocus closed down 21p at 262¼p.

Autonomy pushed higher as analysts reacted to the group’s second-quarter numbers and planned acquisition of Zantaz, the content archiving company. Goldman Sachs raised its target price from 829p to £10.00 on growth in the core business, while noting the possibility for further growth from cross-selling. Citigroup reiterated its “buy” rating, while UBS increased its target price from 820p to 935p. The shares closed up 30½p at 855½p.

Robert Wiseman Dairies, the Scottish milk producer, was 8p weaker at 514½p as it said that the high cost of plastic milk bottles could affect its outlook unless costs start to fall or customers accept higher prices.

Arriva rose 15½p to 703½p after agreeing to buy Veolia Danmark, the Danish bus company.

Sportingbet, the internet gambling operator, fell 1p to 57¾p after it ended talks with Bwin, the Austrian gaming group, over a possible takeover.

Pan African Resources surged 2.75p to 8.87p after agreeing a reverse takeover of Barberton Mines, catapulting it from junior gold explorer to mid-tier producer.

DDD, the 3D imaging company, rose 6½p to 12¾p after agreeing a deal to license its technology to Samsung.

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