Granada and Carlton suffer as market rises

The FTSE-100 Index has recovered from a sluggish start to move up 27.0 points to 5692.7.

But Granada and Carlton Communications are both under pressure following gloomy news from the media sector.

Reports said Granada chairman Charles Allen had written to the British prime minister warning that ITV faces disaster unless the Government changed the rules over media ownership.

With a separate report today suggesting the ITV advertising sector would suffer its worst slump since the introduction of commercial television half a century ago, shares in both companies struggled.

Granada has fallen 6¼p to 141¼p, while Carlton is off 10p to 324p.

Other media groups feeling the pinch include BSkyB, down 14½p to 658p, and Pearson, off 9p at £11.44.

But other stocks are prospering, including telecom stocks, with British Telecom up 3½p 425½p, Colt Telecom 20p stronger at 490p and Telewest Communications sparking a penny at 88p.

But Arm Holdings is off 8¼p at 257¼p and Spirent is down 2¼p at 171¼p.

Misys has risen 13p at 498p after announcing a deal to boost its presence in the US healthcare sector.

Kingfisher is also ahead 2p at 403½p as the City speculates over the fate of Woolworths executive chairman Gerald Corbett. The former Railtrack boss is likely to discover later this week if his services are required by the company after its flotation next month.