Although they remain in negative territory, Britain's leading stocks this morning recovered from their morning lows, helping to ease worries about earnings prospects.
By 9.30 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 8.8 points at 5,007.4, after recovering from an early dip to 4,962.1. It is back near Thursday's close, its highest since the September 11th attacks on the United States.
Telecoms stocks were generally higher, led by mobile phone giant Vodafone.
Vodafone shares had initially showed a muted response to a report the company is expected to report first-half earnings up more than 40 per cent, beating analysts' forecasts and its own recent expectations.
But after touching 154p, the shares advanced to 158 3/4p and were last up 1.1 per cent at 158p, near Thursday's intraday peak of 159p, its highest level for more than two months.
Oil stocks declined, however, knocking about 5 points off the FTSE 100's value. Shell dipped 1.4 per cent, and BP was down 0.5 per cent after UBS Warburg cut its target prices for both, although it raised its recommendation on Shell to "buy" from "hold".
Several other stocks that have performed strongly this week gave up some of their gains. Microchip developer ARM Holdings retreated 2.5 per cent as buying fizzled out after its 18 per cent surge on Thursday.
Fund manager Amvescap fell 5.1 per cent, which dealers again attributed to selling emerging after its 16.7 per cent rally on Thursday.