Footsie closes higher

A grim week on the London market ended with the FTSE 100 Index enjoying modest gains.

The Footsie closed up 25.0 points at 4605.3, but earlier in the session had climbed more than 61 points.

It meant the Footsie ended a bumpy week at a level not seen since September 21, when global equity markets were sent reeling by the terror attacks in the US.

A downbeat start on Wall Street did not help sentiment and by London's close the Dow Jones Industrial Average had slumped more than 100 points.

Abbey National lifted 19p at 776½p, Northern Rock was 17p stronger at 652p, Barclays gained 20p at 541p, Lloyds TSB jumped 18p at 642p and HBOS surged 24½p at 718p.

Telecoms were also moving ahead after a string of heavy losses - Vodafone reached the 90p mark after putting on a penny while mmO2 rose 1% or ½p at 37½p.

Among the techs, chip designer ARM and computer services firm Logica both ended their tenure in the FTSE 100 on a relatively high note.

They join the FTSE 250 on Monday after being kicked out of the top flight, but today ARM gained 5p at 144p and Logica added 1¼p at 198¼p.

Their demotion, along with distribution Electrocomponents, leaves software group Sage as the only blue chip tech stock. It put on 4½p at 163¾p.

Elsewhere, Reuters gained 10½p at 358p as it edged back from yesterday's hefty losses.