Footsie making up for earlier losses

The Footsie index of 100 blue-chip stocks has recovered from an earlier 30-point fall to stand 0.4 points ahead of its opening price at 5796.5 by lunchtime.

Fallers include telecoms equipment group Spirent, off 7% or 19¾p at 248p; Marconi, down 12½p at 341p; and Energis, slipping 5¾p to 260½p.

Telecoms shares under pressure include Vodafone, off 3¾p at 177½p; Colt Telecom, down 19p at 716p; Orange, 11p lower at 597p; BT, off 3p at 432p; Cable & Wireless, down 4½p at 455½p; and Telewest Communications, slipping ½p to 120½p.

Tech fallers include software group Sage, down 4p at 281p; chip designer ARM Holdings, dropping 3¼p at 334¾p; and computer services group Logica, falling 15p at 870p.

Software group Misys has slipped 10p to 553p; while Autonomy has fallen 8p to 442p.

Investors are piling into old economy stocks such as oil and pharmaceuticals - with BP Amoco up 10p at 632p; Shell rising 9p to 619½p; and drugs group GlaxoSmithKline up 19p at £19.31.

Among the smaller stocks, sports retailer JD Sports has jumped 3½p at 344½p after announcing a 35% increase in year-end profits; and shares in pubs and beer group Fuller Smith & Turner are up nearly 10% or 45p at 502½p after it said year-end profits were up 41% to £19.3 million.

Shares in drug group Cenes are up 3½p at 43p after saying it has formed a joint venture with Irish group Elan to develop a pain relief treatment.

But stockbroker Brewin Dolphin's share price is down 4% or 6p at 138p after saying profits had been hit by a fall in stock market volumes. The group said half-year profits came in at £8.9 million, a slip from the £13.8 million reported in the same period a year ago.

Home shopping firm N Brown is down 6p to 286½p after confirming that takeover talks with privately-owned rival Littlewoods had been terminated; while architectural firm Aukett is off 8% or ¾p at 8¾p after saying margins had been disappointing in the first half of its financial year and announcing a dive in profits.