Shares in Capgemini rose on Thursday on market talk that India's Infosys would make a bid for Europe's largest IT services group at 70 euros a share, traders said.

At 1348 GMT, Capgemini shares were 4 percent higher at 55.90 euros. Earlier, Infosys closed down 0.4 percent at 1,921.75 Indian rupees.

Its just a rumor. We don't want to comment on it, Infosys Technologies' Chief Financial Officer V. Balakrishnan told Reuters in Bangalore.

Capgemini, Europe's largest computer consultancy with a market value of about 7.8 billion euros ($10.8 billion), was not immediately available for comment.

Infosys would consider friendly takeovers in Europe, the firm's chief executive S. Gopalakrishnan was quoted as saying in Thursday's edition of Germany's Handelsblatt newspaper.

I'm not sure whether they're looking at Capgemini in totality but if it actually goes through, then the ability to manage will be a big factor, said Tejas Doshi, sector analyst at Mumbai brokerage Sushil Finance.

On Wednesday, Gopalakrishnan told reporters that the company could not comment on rumors of an acquisition.

As a company strategy we do look at acquisitions, but the company has to meet our criteria ... we can't comment on anything which is a rumor because that's all we can say until and unless something really happens, he said, after the company beat forecasts with a 35 percent jump in quarterly profit, boosted by tax gains.

India's second largest software services exporter whose clients include ABN AMRO, Goldman Sachs and Airbus, develops applications, designs supply chains and offers back-office services to Western clients seeking to cut costs.

(Additional reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee in Bangalore and Marcel Michelson in Paris)a

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