Shares in QinetiQ, the UK defence company, surged 8% in their first hours of public life today after being priced at 200p in a flotation valuing the company at £1.3bn (€1.9bn). The deal was six times covered.

Over 125 million shares changed hands in conditional trading and by 10:02 GMT they had reached 216.44p, valuing the company at £1.4bn (€2bn). By 12:00 GMT they had eased back 1% to 214.25p.