LONDON MARKETS: ITV Rallies In Choppy London; Vodafone Slumps

By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- ITV PLC led U.K. stocks higher Tuesday, playing off a well-received trading update, but Vodafone Group PLC lost ground as the wireless-telecom carrier printed a six-month loss.

The FTSE 100 index gained 0.3% to 5,786.25 in choppy trading, snapping a four-session losing streak.

Jumping the most in the index, shares of ITV rallied 9%. The commercial-television network reported rising revenue for the nine months to Sept. 30.

The broader U.K. market traded in the red for most of the session but scored late gains as U.S. and European equity benchmarks erased losses. and

Risk-sensitive sectors, such as banks and oils, posted some of the biggest gains in the London index.

Shares of Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG) gained 3.1%, while Barclays PLC (BCS) rose 1% and heavyweight HSBC Holdings PLC (HBC) picked up 0.8%.

In the energy sector, Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) saw its shares add 0.9% as BP PLC (BP) rose 0.4%. Shares of BG Group PLC gained as well, up 0.2%.

Bucking the positive trend in London, shares of Vodafone (VOD) slumped 2.5%.

For the first half to Sept. 30, the company had a loss of 1.98 billion pounds ($3.14 billion), a reversal from a profit of  £6.68 billion in the same period a year earlier, hit by impairments for Spain and Italy. Economic woes for the two countries have forced Vodafone to widen discounts.

On the data front Tuesday, the annualized CPI inflation rate rose to 2.7% in October from 2.2% in September, above market expectations.

"As we had largely expected, the key drivers were the near tripling in university tuition fees; a modest tightening in various VAT loopholes; firmer car prices; and a jump in food price inflation," analysts at Investec Securities said in a note.

The data came a day ahead of the Bank of England's keenly awaited quarterly inflation report.

"While we are not especially concerned about the strength of inflation over the medium term, our own forecasts show the targeted measure rising above 3.5% by mid-2013," the Investec analysts said.

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