Bad news may be waiting for London market

Blue-chip stocks have ended the week on a high note despite fears more bad news could be waiting around the corner for the London market.

The FTSE-100 Index of leading stocks closed up 45.3 points at 5633.7, buoyed by early gains on Wall Street where the Dow Jones Industrial Average surged ahead more than 50 points in early trading.

However, many City analysts are forecasting a further raft of profit warnings next week in the tech sector, particularly in the US.

This is expected to hold back tech and telecom stocks on this side of the Atlantic over the short-term.

The market was boosted by traders looking to hedge their bets and buy those selected stocks they think may rally next week. A mixture of old and new economy stocks appeared on the Footsie risers board for most of the day before the fears surrounding the new economy pushed tech stocks back down.

Pharmaceutical companies fared well, with Celltech rising 5%, or 64p, to £12.10, followed by one of the market's biggest stocks GlaxoSmithKline, which rose 48p to £18.41.

Anglo-Swedish drugs group AstraZeneca also moved ahead, rising 116p to £33.60, after it submitted an application for its breast cancer treatment to the US Food & Drug Administration.

Banks were also moving ahead, unharmed by the Competition Commission's high profile public hearing on Lloyds TSB's planned takeover of Abbey National.

HSBC moved ahead 29p to 844p, the Bank of Scotland moved up 18p to 700p while Abbey National jumped ahead 3%, or 32p to £11.24. Lloyds TSB dropped slightly, falling 3½p to 691½p.

Of the fallers, telecom stocks were hit once more, with Marconi plunging a further 15p to 340p, its lowest price since October 1998.