For what looked like being a quiet Friday - the FSA's pronouncement on short selling aside - there has been a surprising amount of bid activity.
Oil services group Expro International has jumped 46p to £16.61 after private equity firm Candover and Goldman Sachs raised their offer to £16.15 a share to try and see off a rival bidder in the shape of US group Halliburton. But the market is clearly betting that Halliburton could come back and lift its own £15.25p a share bid.
Lower down the market, medical group Clinphone climbed nearly 40% as two US groups, Parexel and Quintiles, battled it out for the business.
Green energy company Econergy International, which earlier revealed France's Suez had topped an offer from Trading Emissions, is currently around 35% higher.
More generally, Wall Street has opened around 50 points higher after US inflation figures showed an annual increase of 4.2% last month, up on April's 3.9% figure and slighly above expectations. But core inflation, which excludes energy, was steady at 2.3%. This seems to have eased some of the concern about an imminent US rate rise.
Rob Carnell at ING said: "A mixed bag for the May US inflation report, with the headline rate surprising consensus on the upside. But core inflation remained unchanged in line with expectations, and with some encouraging signs of slowdown in the all-important housing elements of core inflation."
Helped by the Dow's rise, the FTSE 100 is off its worst levels and now sits 22.2 points lower at 5768.3.
