European Midday Update: Markets Take Heart from Late Wall Street Rally

LONDON -- European markets had a distinctly better feel to them Tuesday morning, with bombed-out technology, media and telecom stocks staging a slight comeback.

The FTSE 100 by midmorning stood 33.0 points higher, at 6,068.5, after being 93 points up at best. The Techmark rallied 47.2 points to 2,974.4. Since hitting a record 5,743.3 on March 6, the technology index has been shelled by a 49% drop.

Vodafone AirTouch (VOD) led the telecom sector higher, with the shares rallying 12p to 254.5 ($3.77). British Telecom (BTY) moved up 24p to 882, and Colt Telecom (COLTY) gained 50p to 19.12.

Leading the revival in the techs was Baltimore Technologies (BALT), which jumped 38p to 406. Psion rose 26p to 510, BATM Advanced Communications advanced 250p to 32.50 and Bookham Technology (BKHM) moved up 125p to 30.50.

Among media stocks, EMI posted pretax profits of 254 million, beating market estimates, and the shares responded with a gain of 7.5p to 576. BSkyB (BSY) improved 30p to 10.10 and Pearson rose 51p to 18.50.

Tradepoint Financial Networks edged forward 0.5p to 151.5 on news that the company has entered an exclusive agreement with the Swiss stock exchange to set up a trading platform for European equities.

Most of Europe's other stock markets were in positive territory early Tuesday, as they rebounded from Monday's late selloff. The Xetra Dax in Frankfurt was up 60.64 at 6,973.60 and the CAC 40 in Paris was 78.37 higher at 6,172.54. The Neuer Markt's Nemax 50 index was up 167.66 at 6,181.95.

In Frankfurt, big techs were some of the biggest gainers, as Siemens (SMWAY) rose 4.35 euros to 146.45 ($132.18), Epcos (EPC) was up 3.45 euros at 130.20, and software maker SAP (SAP) climbed 19.40 euros to 554.00.

German financial stocks were mixed, with Deutsche Bank (DTBKY) up 1.06 euros at 81.56 and Dresdner Bank (DRSDY) up 0.29 euros at 42.27, while Commerzbank (CRZBY) was down 0.02 euros at 38.87 and insurer Allianz fell 19.00 euros to 383.50.

Deutsche Telekom (DT) rose 2.63 euros to 58.78 and Telefonica (TEF) was up 0.58 euros at 21.14. France Telecom (FTE) climbed 5.30 euros to 137.80, after announcing it would sell back a 1.8% stake of DT to Germany's development bank.

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