Market overview: London in the blue

LONDON (ShareCast) - 1350: London has crept into the blue. The FTSE 100 is up 1 point at 5,109 as US futures indicate and= early 40-point gain for Wall Street at the opening bell.

1330: US jobless claims fell by 20,000 to 512,000 in the week ended 31 October versus expectations of a drop to 522,000. The number of continuing claims fell by 68,000 to 5.8 million, as forecast.

1230: Footsie (news) has ticked up a little on the Bank of England's decision to boost the quantitative easing programme by £25bn over the next three months. Telecom heavyweights BT (LSE: BT-A.L - news) and Vodafone (LSE: VOD.L - news) are propping up the index, with rat catcher Rentokil (LSE: 647054.L - news) also going well ahead of a trading update tomorrow. Cable & Wireless and Invensys (LSE: ISYS.L - news) are the laggards. FTSE 100 down 25 at 5,083.

1115: The FTSE 100 is off 22 points at 5,085, it's best levels of the day as BT, Vodafone and Tesco (LSE: TSCO.L - news) gain ground.

0955: London shares have stabilised a little after a weak start. Cable & Wireless is the main weak spot, but its heavy fall is being offset by gains for its traditional rivals BT and Vodafone. Indian miner Vedanta is also lower on its latest production update. FTSE 100 down 35.

0950: UK new car sales rose to 168,942 last month, an increase of 31.6% compared with October 2008, according to the SMMT.

0820: London's top stocks opened lower with engineering company Invensys leading the fallers. The group said it is still confident of posting a year on year improvement in results over the full year despite being behind at the halfway stage. Telecoms group Cable & Wireless also dropped after it has revived plans to split itself in to two parts. FTSE 100 is down 40 points at 5,068.