UK stocks up after Nasdaq recovery

UK technology stocks opened brightly this morning after a Nasdaq rise late yesterday remade ground lost in the disastrous falls of the past week.

Soon after opening the FTSE Techmark index was up 13 points, or just over half a per cent, led by a modest rise for telco Vodafone. Other early tech gains included two per cent rises for website Scoot.com and security firm Baltimore Technologies. However, the market was reigned back by Cable and Wireless, down almost 11 per cent after disappointing results and layoffs announced earlier in the week. The brighter start was triggered by a five per cent rise in the value of the Nasdaq yesterday as US markets bounced back after a week of falls. The rise was led by the usual blue-chip tech stocks - Cisco, Oracle and Sun were all up.