Footsie claws its way back into positive territory

The Footsie index of 100 leading blue-chip stocks is up 9.4 points at mid-morning to stand at 5025.6, after recovering from heavy falls in early trading.

Vodafone is up 2p to 158¼p, while GlaxoSmithKline is up 7p to £18.98 as traders look to snap up key shares on the cheap.

BP and Shell are also bouncing back from earlier losses, with BP unchanged at 564p and Shell down just 6p at 518p.

High street banks are also faring well, with Lloyds TSB up 4p to 706p; Royal Bank of Scotland up 40p at £15.90; and Barclays ahead 16p to £19.70.

Hopes for the rest of the session are likely to rest on crucial unemployment figures due out in the US later today. A larger-than-expected increase could dent the new-found confidence in the City.

British Airways is still suffering, falling 3¾p to 161¾p, as fears over the impact of the terror attacks on the US continue to mount.

Tesco is also having a bad day, off 8p to 252p; but contract caterer Compass is up 3% or 14¼p to 476¼p after saying its full-year profits will be in line with expectations, despite the recent events in the US.

Outside the Footsie 100, engineering group Cookson is up 2p at 43p after announcing plans to cut a further 1,740 jobs.

And easyJet is up 10p to 345p after passenger numbers for September showed no adverse impact from the US terrorist crisis.