Wall Street pushes up London
The Footsie is up 18.6 points thanks to major gains on Wall Street last night.
The index of the UK's top companies is now at 5640.4, settling down after an initial burst saw it reach 5685.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 402.6 points while the Nasdaq rose by 146 points.
Both indexes were buoyed by Dell Computers' positive trading update on Wednesday night.
But software group Autonomy has seen its shares plunge by 50% after it warning that revenues will be lower than expected in the first quarter.
The FTSE-250 company, which saw its shares hit £40.10 last November, has dived to 285p as investors ditched the stock following the announcement.
Autonomy blames the US slowdown and its impact on Europe but, while the news hit some tech stocks on the FTSE-100 Index, the market is continuing its recent good form.
Telecoms were still leading the way with Telewest Communications up 4¼p to 115p, Colt Telecom ahead 12p to 657p and Energis rising 4½p to 269½p.
Cable & Wireless is also up, rising 6½p to 501½p, BT has risen 8½p to 535p and Vodafone has jumped 5¼p to 201p.
Clinton Cards has risen 10%, or 13p to 134½p after reporting strong sales growth in the first nine weeks of the current financial year and turning in profits ahead of City forecasts.
