Battered stocks regain some ground, with Burberry and banks bouncing back

flirting with the bears on Tuesday, the FTSE 100 is up 86.55 points at 5030.99, with Germany up 1.5% and France 2% ahead. Even Italy is up 1.2%.

A downward revision to UK GDP figures and a surprise jump in the service sector performance in September has had little effect on the market so far, although it must surely complicate the Bank of England’s decision on further quantitative easing when it outlines its plans on Thursday. Simon Denham at Capital Spreads said:

Markets are in turmoil and there’s no doubting that. Yesterday’s volatility shows how investors have little clue as to which way to look. One minute all of Europe’s banks are about to crumble, the next they are about to be saved. What is unbelievable is that only a few months ago Europe’s banks were given a clean bill of health following the second round of stress tests, but these crucially didn’t take into account the possibility of a sovereign default. The elephant in the room is starting to get restless as the liquidity within the money markets dries up and we’re almost back to square one from a few years ago.

Following their updates J Sainsbury has added 12.9p to 287.6p and Tesco is up 0.8p to 380.9p.

But Inmarsat fell 7.4p to 466p as the satellite group’s shares went ex-dividend, while with gold dipping as risk appetite returned, Randgold Resources is down 115p at £60.10.