Market rises from two-year low

Telecoms and oil stocks are raising the FTSE-100 Index 39.9 points from its two-year low point.

It is now at 5898.5 and is close to reversing the 50 point dive of Friday, which took the index to its poorest closing level since February 1999.

GlaxoSmithKline, ahead 23p at £19.37, is one of the stock pushing up the market but telecoms are beginning to recover from heavy falls at the end of last week.

They include Vodafone - ahead 5½p at 187½p - and BT, 21p stronger at 553p after speculation on the ways it could reduce its debt burden.

Also on the up are Colt Telecom, 51p stronger at £11.93 and telecom equipment group Marconi 10p stronger at 457p.

Oil stocks also lent their weight, with BP Amoco rising 9½p to 581½p and Shell up 2p to 569p.

British Airways has risen 9¼p to 359¾p, following reports that Dutch airline KLM, together with a private equity group, was poised for a joint bid to buy BA's low cost subsidiary Go.

But three of the market's companies - Hays, Exel and Pearson - failed to impress the market with their results.

Hays is off 7¼p at 316¾p despite reporting a 7% hike in pre-tax profits and a strong performance by its personnel division.

Exel is down 22p at 865p after it announced a number of new contracts but said profits had fallen nearly 6%.

Pearson is down 71p at £14.90 after saying the cost of its internet investment had dented the group's full-year profits - although the figures came in above some analyst's expectations.

Supermarket groups are also paying the price for the renewed interest in telecoms as investors switched out of retail stocks. Sainsbury's and Tesco have both slipped - off 5¾p to 369¾p and 2p to 258p respectively.

Marks & Spencer has fallen too, off 10¼p at 226¾p, while Boots is off 29p at 606p and Kingfisher is off 10p at 477½p.

Among the smaller stocks, West Midlands-based engineering group Hampson Industries is up 6¾p at 42p - a 19% leap - after saying it has received a management buy out approach.