Shares in Halifax Bank of Scotland staged an overdue rally yesterday to jump above the 275p rights issue price - but it came after the 11am deadline for final commitments to buy the shares, with HBOS marooned at 269p. Although the bank's shares closed up 13.75p at 282p, the underwriters Morgan Stanley and Dresdner Kleinwort will have to foot the bill for a large chunk of them - speculation yesterday varied wildly between 7% and 40% - when the bank announces on Monday the take-up of a £4bn issue expected to represent one of the biggest cash call snubs of the past 20 years.

A substantial proportion of the share offer is said to be "sub-underwritten" by long-term existing investors, and other big investors who need to buy large chunks of HBOS stock to maintain their holdings might still have chosen to support the issue, analysts said.

Institutions hold some 74% of the stock and had until Wednesday to make their decision, and observers said this week's modest rally may have given long-term investors who want to support the capital raising enough justification for taking up the rights.

Smaller private investors holding the balance of the shares are likely to have been more cautious.

The shares crashed from 495p on April 29, the day the issue was announced, to below the 275p issue price in mid-June, then rallied to 321p on the Financial Services Authority's supposed crackdown on short-selling into rights issues.

But HBOS resumed its downward trajectory to hit a low of 225p earlier this week before rebounding to 260p on Tuesday.