FTSE

The FTSE 100 index is up about 42 points to 4,449 this morning, mostly because of news Vodafone is throwing in the towel over its bid to acquire AT&T Wireless in the US.

The FTSE 100 index closed up 53.40 points at 4,461.50 today after Reuters jumped by £1bn in value on its full-year results.

Vodafone and GlaxoSmithKline led the FTSE 100 index down 3.90 points to 4,408.10 today despite a good majority of index constituents making gains.

The FTSE 100 index is down about 21 points to 4,390 this morning as investors wiped more than £3bn in market value off Vodafone after unconfirmed reports it has tabled a bid worth up to $38bn for US operator AT&T Wireless.

Three days of losses were countered by two days of gains this week, leaving the key FTSE 100 index largely unchanged on last Friday's close, up by just 13 points to 4,415 over the past five days.

The FTSE 100 index is up about 9 points to 4,405 after strong overnight gains in the US linked to Federal Reserve statements about maintaining existing record low interest rates.

The FTSE 100 index closed down 8.9 points at 4,396 today as negative newsflow continued to pressure the biggest telecoms firm.

The FTSE 100 has managed to the close the week up and over the 4400 barrier, after Aviva reported full-year profits are likely to be higher than previous predictions.

The Bank of England today announced another hike in interest rates on concerns UK's strengthened economy could trigger inflation.

The benchmark FTSE 100 index was down around 12.6 points to 4,378 within the first hour of trading this morning after UK stocks fell for the fourth day in five paced by Scottish Power and Amvescap.