Tech shares rise in FTSE

A rise in tech shares helped the London market start the week on the front foot today, shrugging off losses on the US markets on Friday night.

After an hour’s trading, the FTSE-100 Index of leading shares was up 24.9 points at 5367.

Computer services group CMG jumped 4%, up 10p at 251p, while Logica rose 10p to 683p.

Chip designer Arm lifted 6½p to 288p, while software group Misys was 6p ahead at 334p and Sage was up 3p at 205¼p.

Among the telecom stocks, Cable & Wireless rose 7¼p to 329½p, Colt Telecom jumped 4p ahead to 264p, Spirent was up 2p at 141¾p and Marconi rose ½p to 70p.

On the way down however was Scottish Power, falling 7½p to 473p following reports that Italian group Enel, the leading bidder to buy its Southern Water subsidiary, had pulled out of the contest.

The group was understood to have offered between £1.7bn and £1.8bn, including taking on £1 billion debt.

Other fallers included BHP Billiton, slipping a marginal penny to 317p, as the newly merged Anglo Australian mining giant announced full-year profits of $1.53 bn (£1.06bn), 1% higher than the combined results for last year.

However, advertising giant WPP’s announcement that it had launched a £437m counterbid for media buying agency Tempus, rivalling a £425m bid launched last month by French group Havas Advertising, failed to move the shares.

WPP, which also announced a rise in half-year profits and turnover, saw shares static at 663p.

Tempus slipped 2½p to 580p.