Equities markets in London were higher on Tuesday, spurred on by earnings reports and a strong opening in New York. The FTSE 100 added 0.7 percent to 5,895.5, while the FTSE 250 was 0.9 percent higher to 9,605.5.

With miners lower again on dropping commodities prices, some investors were switching into telecommunications and technology stocks. Sage, which produces accountancy software, added 2.2 percent to 247¼p. Among telecoms, Vodafone was 2.4 percent higher to 117½p. Vodafone was also helped for a second day by Telecom Italia’s move to divest itself of its mobile phone business.

In the steel sector, Corus was up 2.2 percent to 375¾p on positive comments from UBS.

Cruise ship operator Carnival added 3.6 percent to £24.33 on rumors that results from the summer quarter will meet analyst predictions. Part of this talk was based the fact that rival Royal Caribbean has upped its predictions for its summer results. In addition, analysts figure that a quiet hurricane season might have increased bookings.

The media sector was mixed. ITV was down by 2.2 percent to 98¾p as it seemed that advertising revenues for ITV1 could be as much as 20 percent lower in October. In addition, Cazenove repeated its “underperform” rating based on less spending by advertisers. However UTV, which owns Northern Ireland’s ITV franchise, added 1.1 percent to 370¾p.

In London on Friday, equities markets were up slightly with the FTSE 100 up by only 3 points to 5,903.4 and the FTSE 250 adding 0.3 percent to 9.513.0. These small gains added on earlier increases, with the 100 up 1.7 percent over the week and the 250 gaining 2.8 percent since Monday’s opening.

Bids news spurred gains in the media sector. It was revealed that SMG, which owns STV and Virgin Radio, is in talks with UTV sent SMG 2.9 percent higher to 72p, while UTV added 7.6 percent to 344¼p. GCAP Media was also the center of takeover talk, sending it 3.2 percent higher to 215p.

In the tobacco sector, Imperial Tobacco gained 2.2 percent to £18.18 on the news that while a US court found Altria and Reynolds American guilty of violating racketeering laws it did not impose a fine on either company. Analysts said that this outcome made it more likely that the Phillip Morris division of Altria would make an immediate bid for Imperial.

Among losers on the day was PartyGaming, which was 2.2 percent lower to 111p after ABN Amro reduced its recommendation on the online gamer from “buy” to “hold”. Miner Kazakhmys declined by 2.3 percent on the news that China has raised interest rates weighed on mining stocks, as investors were concerned that the move would have an effect on the demand for metals. Among mid-caps, Carphone Warehouse dropped 1.7 percent to 266¾p after Citigroup began coverage of the company with as “sell” recommendation.