FTSE ends up as optimism continues

The decision of the European Central Bank to leave interest rates unchanged today despite a widely expected 0.25% cut did not manage to dampen investors' appetite for equities leading the FTSE 100 index up 11 points to 5,164 by close. Only one sector, telecoms, faced some significant bad news as BT's share price fell ahead of the demerger of its wireless assets. The company's subscriber figures released today raised fears that it is not growing its revenues per user fast enough. That news hit the two other wireless stocks Orange and Vodafone, and with the latter representing a...