Retailers may have been hit by fresh fears over consumer spending but NSB Retail Systems, the software company that helps stores such as Debenhams and WH Smith to manage stock and track sales, can celebrate a £160 million Christmas present.

NSB, up 3¼p to 37¼p, has recommended a 38p-a-share cash offer from Epicor Software of the US, a 60 per cent premium to NSB’s price at the end of last week and level with a high briefly enjoyed four years ago.

Nikki Beckett, NSB’s founder and former chief executive, can cash out her remaining holding for £3.8 million.

Ms Beckett’s joy contrasts with the feelings of investors in Character Group, the designer and distributor of Spider-Man and Doctor Who toys. They may be hoping for a Tardis to whisk them back to a time when Christmas trading was not quite so bleak. Character Group halved in value, down 69½p to 68½p, as it said revenues for the four months to December 31 were likely to be 18 per cent lower than last year.

Sharp falls since August in commercial property prices and the volume of deals left Fletcher King, the property agency, warning that full-year results will fall materially below those achieved last year, which would be reflected in the final dividend. Fletcher King shares shed 15½p to 48½p. The sell-off affected larger rival DTZ, which shed 15p to 285p, now down two thirds from their January peak. Savills, which sells commercial and upmarket property, shed 14½ to 288¼p.

Shares in New Britain Palm Oil, which grows and refines the product in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea, as a food and a detergent ingredient, rose 42p to 292p on their first day of dealing on the main market. The company raised £88.9 million in a share placing priced at 250p-a-piece, brokered by Kaupthing.

Termination of takeover talks for Alphameric, the technology business, left its shares down 4½p at 20p.

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