Footsie nearly reverses its losses

The FTSE 100 Index of leading stocks is up 53.4 points at 5077.5 at mid-morning, nearly reversing yesterday's 68-point slump.

Telecoms and banking stocks are the main beneficiaries as the London market bounces back.

Vodafone is up 3½¾p at 129¾p; BT Group is ahead 2¼p at 244½p; and mmO2 is up 2½p to 62½p.

Cable & Wireless has edged up 1p at 213p following its slide yesterday after a disappointing trading update.

Among the FTSE 250 telecoms risers are Telewest Communications, up ¾p at 20¼p; Marconi, up ¾p at 20½p; Kingston Communications, 3p ahead at 83p; and Spirent, up 6p at 136p.

Banks on the rise include Standard Chartered, up 19p at 759½p; HSBC, 10p ahead at 780p; Lloyds TSB, up 16½p at 741½p; Royal Bank of Scotland, 22p ahead at £17.01; and Barclays, up 30p at £21.09.

But Abbey National is down 2% or 18½p to 976p after reporting a fall in pre-tax profits, which it blamed on a sharp increase in write-offs from its wholesale banking division - including a £95 million hit from its exposure to Enron.

Diageo is down 1½p at 810p after it reported a slight rise in profits, but gave no news on the future of Burger King or the disposal of Malibu rum.

Among the FTSE 250 stocks, telecoms carrier Energis slumped 40% or 6¼p to 7p after saying it expected to be unable to comply with certain financial covenants. Shareholder National Grid said Energis should not assume it could rely on it for additional financial support.