Footsie rises after dropping below 5600
The Footsie index of 100 leading stocks is hovering around its opening price as new economy stocks stage a slight recovery following yesterday's heavy falls.
The Footsie initially fell below the 5600 barrier, but it was up 26.6 points after an hour of trading. At 9am, it stood at 5652.8.
Investors are being cheered by gains overnight on the Nikkei index in Japan, where the market closed up by more than 300 points.
The recovery is helping to offset further losses on the US markets, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq both down.
In London, new economy stocks are finding favour on a light trading day, with telecoms group Colt Telecom leading the Footsie risers board, up 5% or 51p at 989p.
Cable & Wireless is also finding some support - up 10p to 488p - after falling heavily over the past two days; while BT is up 8p to 523p.
Among the tech stocks, software group Misys is ahead 28p at 598p; Sage is up 3p to 287¾p; and chip designer ARM Holdings has moved up 9½p to 325p.
But it's proving a bad day for supermarket group Iceland, which has seen its share price tumble by mopre than 3% or 5p to 147½p after warning that profits for the 15 months to the end of this month will be £20 million lower than forecast in January.
P&O is up 6% or 7½p at 277½p after saying it is confident it can weather any economic slowdown. Its profits were also at the top end of City expectations.
Among smaller stocks, mobile phone distributor European Telecom is down 38% or 15p at 24p after announcing a significant number of job losses.
