London markets ride out WorldCom storm

Fraud revelations pushed to one side...

After yesterday's WorldCom controversy European markets this morning made a strong come back. The FTSE100 opened up by 0.6 per cent or 26.9 points while the TechMark 100 was up 1.45 per cent. The FTSE Eurotop was also slightly better off moving into the green by 0.71 per cent. The mobile sector made a particularly strong start to morning trading with Vodafone seeing gains of almost three per cent, or 2.5p and mm02 rising more than seven per cent to 41.13p. The UK's incumbent telecoms operator, BT was also into the green by 0.73 per cent or 1.75p. London stocks were buoyed by a relatively positive performance by the Nasdaq composite which closed up 0.38 per cent or 5.34 points despite the initial turbulence of the WorldCom aftermath. The tech-laden index at one point looked closed to hitting the terrible lows of September but made a come back boosted by goods news in the US housing sector and positive results from some of the United States' largest companies including General Electric. The WorldCom fiasco has, however, given investor confidence a further knock and led to an even increased feeling of corporate mistrust.