ITV’s house broker prompted a large fall in the broadcaster’s shares by issuing a sell note and giving warning that Michael Grade’s online and production growth targets were unrealistic. The broadcaster lost 4.6p to 63.3p - close to its record low – after the UBS analyst Daniel Kerven cautioned that a television advertising slowdown of as much as 5 per cent next year could wipe out a fifth of the broadcaster’s earnings.

ITV’s decision to create an advertising-funded online joint venture with the BBC for recently transmitted programming would benefit the BBC most and provide ITV with a new competitor for advertising, he argued. His downgrade came as ITV’s annual report revealed that Mr Grade was paid £2 million in the past year.

Vodafone weighed on the FTSE 100 index by falling 6.1p to 150.9p amid concerns that the European Commission may force mobile operators to cut the rates they charge callers from land-lines or other mobile networks to cost-price only. Nick Delfas, of Morgan Stanley, cut the mobile giant from “overweight” to “underweight” and lowered his target price to 170p. Vodafone’s house brokers Cazenove and UBS said the fears were exaggerated.

The FTSE 100 closed up 9.2 at 5,702.1 as mining shares were buoyed by a firm copper price, a rally on Wall Street and a continued recovery in HBOS, up 20p at 560p. Shares in Antofagasta rose 25½p to 701p.

The stock market historian David Schwartz said that equity markets will fall a further 10 per cent from their summer highs as the global economic outlook worsens. “History warns us to be alert for a drop of at least 25 per cent,” he said. “This would be equal to a FTSE 100 drop to 5,050, if not lower.”

London Stock Exchange fell 51p to £12.08 after Alliance Bernstein reiterated its “underperform” view and £12 target, and said that the imminent arrival of the rival trading platform BATS to Europe would cut LSE’s market share.

Icap’s chairman, Charles Gregson, sparked renewed anxiety about a long-term decline in hedge fund trading volume by selling shares to avoid the April rise in tax. The interdealer broker lost 20½p to 569p.

Old Mutualfell 4.7p to 110.5p, hit by further weakness in the South African rand. British Airways lost 5¾p to 234¼p after brokers said its Heathrow Terminal 5 problems meant it was unlikely to reach its 10 per cent margin target for the year.

Shares in retailers continued to fall after gloomy GDP forecasts on Friday. Tesco lost 11¼p to 379p, also weighed down by worries over its US arm and fears that it will launch a UK price war, down 3¾p at 274¼p. Marks & Spencerfell 9p to 387¼p and Next lost 22p to £11.39.

Euromoney rose 41p to 397p, aided by talk that Daily Mail and General Trust, its 65 per cent shareholder, will buy out the remainder of the shares.

New York: Stocks rose as the Chi-cago Purchasing Managers’ Index on regional manufacturing came in better than expected, up at 48.2 in March, from 44.5 a month earlier. The index – seen as a precursor of the National Institute for Supply Management manufacturing survey, due today – had been forecast by economists to be at 47.3. The Dow Jones industrial average closed up 46.50 at 12,262.90.

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