Misys shares were up 11.50 pence to 211.75 pence in mid morning trading - having jumped to 224.25 pence earlier - after the company reported growing revenues at its banking, healthcare and general insurance businesses.

Within its banking division, revenues at £106m were two per cent ahead of last year. Overall operating profit was £18m, 15% ahead of last year, with margins at 17% ahead of the 15% achieved last year.

In a statement, Misys says stronger trading conditions in underlying banking markets led to a modest improvement in the banking software market in 2004, which seems to be continuing into 2005.

Initial Licence Fee (ILF) order intake at the division was £28m, four per cent higher than the comparable period last year, and the closing ILF order book at £29m was £7m, or 24%, more than that at November 2003.

The vendor says banks are now investing in systems that deliver end-to-end automation across multiple product sets and channels, which is leading to more complex projects. This is having a knock-on effect on the company's ILF revenue which was down nine per cent at £26m. But the division did see an increase in maintenance revenue, which was up one per cent to £54m, and professional services revenue which at £22m was up 19% and showed a small sequential improvement over the second half of last year.

Commenting on the overall results, Kevin Lomax, executive chairman, Misys, says: "Our progress reflects the actions we have taken to reposition our businesses and products, as well as some improvement in conditions in the banking market."

But Lomax says the group's performance was adversely affected by weaknesses at its IFA network Sesame, which saw revenues decline eight per cent to £165m and profits fall to £2m, compared to £5m last year.

Misys says its full year expectations have not changed and, on a like-for-like basis, its second half performance will also be an improvement on last year.