From close to its all-time low, ITV climbed by 7 per cent to 68.5p on a report that RTL, controlled by Bertelsmann, was eyeing BSkyB's 17.9 per cent stake in the UK broadcaster.

Haim Saban, the Israeli-American media mogul, is also reported to have expressed an interest.

Oriel Securities kept its sell rating saying: "Fundamentally the stock remains expensive - facing both structural and cyclical pressures."

Barclays was leading the fallers, down 3 per cent at 480.5p on worries that it would follow Royal Bank of Scotland, down 3 per cent at 373.25p with a rights issue. RBS this morning confirmed it was planning a rights issue.

Merrill Lynch downgraded Barclays from "buy" to "neutral" and Collins Stewart recommended investors take profits. It said that Barclays £1.6 billion writedown could soar to more than £6 billion, which would trigger an £8 billion rights issue.

Meanwhile, Merrill Lynch said that the perception that Barclays would need a writedown and potentially a rights issue would weigh on the stock.

Only Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley managed to buck the trend of falling banks, helped by the Bank of England unveiling its £50 billion mortgage market rescue plan. HBOS, the country's largest mortgage lender, failed to gain from this though, down 1 per cent at 553p, after Morgan Stanley said it was time to take profits on equities since the bear market rally was over. It named HBOS as one of the banks most exposed to the next phase of the bear market - weakening trading.

A record high oil price helped to drive oil stocks such as Tullow Oil, up 3 per cent at 732p, and BP, up 21.7 per cent at 577.7p while weighing on British Airways, down 2.7 per cent at 217.75p.

The FTSE 100 was up 6.9 at 6,063.1 by 10.45am as falling financial stocks were offset by rises in commodity stocks.

Trinity Mirror lost 3.8 per cent to 294.5p after Deutsche Bank cut from "hold" to "sell", saying that it had little cash to continue its share buyback, which comes to an end in two to three months.

It gave warning that its regional newspaper business would be feeling the squeeze from a dearth of property advertising just as Johnston Press is. It cut its target price to 250p and said that its pension deficit was also a problem.

Sport Media Group, publisher of the Daily Sport, fell 24 per cent to 32p after giving warning that the delayed relaunch of the national title and the slowing economy meant that its profits for the full year would not be as good as expected.

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