River Diamonds rose 24 per cent to 1.28p helped by stake building from Templar Minerals, the investor run by David Lenigas. Mr Lenigas, a director of River, used to run the Emperor gold-mine in Fiji, which River is trying to rehabilitate. This week Templar increased its stake in River to 26 per cent.

Erinaceous, the troubled property group, lost 10p to 24½p after Vincent Tchenguiz said that he had decided not to bid.

Feedback, the electrical equipment maker, was the worst small cap performer, off a third to 2½p after it said early stage bid talks revealed a week ago had failed.

Talk that ID Support Services was interested in bidding for Worthington Nicholls helped the repairer of air-conditioning systems to jump 2p to 13¾p. A group of rebel shareholders are seeking to oust the management after a succession of profit warnings. Broker Daniel Stewart said they had a good chance of succeeding since the Worthington family and directors had sold down their shareholding to about 15 per cent.

Inland, the property developer, rose another 2¼p to 48¾p after it confirmed that it had approval to develop housing at its key Farnborough site.

Davenham, the specialist small business lender, added 51½p to 290½p after it rebuffed as too low a 325p indicative offer from ACP Capital. Analysts believe others could enter the fray with prices up to 390p.

Consolidated Minerals, the manganese miner, added another ½p to 208p on reassuring results. It favours a bid from Palmary, the vehicle of the Ukrainian manganese tycoon Gennadiy Bogolyubov but has asked Australian regulators to investigate the identity of a shareholder that has built an 18 per cent stake.

UBC Media rose ½p to 10¼p as investors warmed to the sound of its Cliq radio music downloading business to be launched in December.

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