London shakes off Wall Street jitters to close up

London''s markets recovered from a weak opening in the US to close up today (August 20th).

The market initially bounced back from the losses it sustained yesterday, but plummeted after Wall Street opened down.

By mid-afternoon, London''s blue chip index was down close to the low it plumbed yesterday.

However, it rallied and closed up 51.40 points at 5371.80.

Commodities companies again performed well, with Rio Tinto, Eurasian and Kazakhmys all seeing their stocks climb by more than five per cent.

Tullow Oil also enjoyed a good day, buoyed by news that there have been problems in a Norwegian gas field.

Phil Corbett, an analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland, explained to the Guardian: "UK gas prices have posted significant gains today on news that a pipeline from the Kvitebjoern gas field in Norway was shut down after a leak was discovered.

"Statoil, the operator, has declined to give a timetable for fixing the pipeline."

The news ensured that Tullow closed up 6.8 per cent at 741.50.

Weak results and continued worries about the future of print advertising revenues meant that European newspaper publisher Mecom saw its stock price dip over 15 per cent to 18.50.