At midday the FTSE 100 was up 35.1 points at 6,102.6.
Volume was ok with 1.38 billon shares changing hands in 130,532 deals.
Today’s look at individual Stocks:
UK satellite giant BSkyB said it signed an agreement over premiership football with Setanta. This will allow BSkyB subscribers to watch the Irish pay TV group's coverage of top English football.
The deal follows the recent Premier League auction, which saw BSkyB and Setanta win the right to broadcast 92 and 46 live matches per season respectively over a three-year period, starting in August 2007.
HMV Group Plc expects to see its Full Year underlying profit in the middle of analysts' range. HMV Group Plc (the music and Waterstone's books retailer) said it expects to report profit before tax and exceptional costs for the year to April 29 2006 in the middle of the range of analysts' expectations, which is £93-103 million.
In a trading update the group said
Total sales for the full year fell by 1.5% at constant exchange rates, and were down 5.7% on a like-for-like basis 
Airport operator BAA PLC reported a 7.8% year on year increase in passenger traffic for April at its UK airports to 12.4 million, boosted by Easter falling late this year. The group said that taking March and April together, which includes Easter last year, traffic was up 3.2%.
Vodafone shares were on the up this morning, gaining 4p at 130p, as Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein reiterated its buy rating following reports that Verizon Communications Inc could be in talks to buy Vodafone's Verizon Wireless stake. Earlier today, The Daily Telegraph reported that Verizon Communications is looking to buy back Vodafone's 45% stake in the Verizon Wireless venture for $38 billion, but Vodafone values the assets at $50 billion. Dresdner Kleinwort said
a disposal plus cash return to shareholders would be highly free cash flow per share accretive and potentially significantly EPS accretive
Cadbury also climbed higher up 6p at 551p as the old lady rumour mill revived speculation that US peer Kraft Foods could be circling the confectioner.
DSG International climbed higher also, gaining 4p at 193p as Deutsche Bank reiterated its buy rating, with an increased target price of 225 pence from 210.
Broker comments affected Kingfisher stock, up 4p at 240p as UBS upgraded to buy from 'neutral', saying early indicators of a recovery in housing transactions looked good.
Supermarkets were positive this morning, shrugging off news that the OFT has referred the grocery sector to the Competition Commission as the news was widely expected.
Sainsbury was up 2p at 347p. Tesco was up 4p at 320p and Morrison was 1p higher at 190p
In stark contrast, Man Group topped the loser’s board today. Man shares fell by 83p at 2,642 after its US brokerage arm Man Financial was accused of fraud following the collapse of hedge fund Philadelphia Alternative Asset Management. Man Financial, which acted as broker to the hedge fund, vigorously denies the allegations.
Mining stocks eased back as commodity prices came off recent highs. Xstrata was the biggest casualty on profit-taking after three sessions of triple-digit gains as Citigroup pointed out that the shares may suffer if it needs a rights issue to acquire Falconbridge. Xstrata was down by 43p at 2,322, with Kazakhmys loosing 5p at 1,249. Antofagasta was down 12p at 2,512 and BHP Billiton also down by 6p to 1,171.
Woolworth’s have been upgraded to hold from sell by Deutsche Bank on valuation, with an increased target price of 33.5p from 31.5p.
The Portfolio:
A target price increase lifted shares in Carphone Warehouse (CPW) today up 6p at 361p as Bear Sterns hiked its price target to 415p from 375p, tipping the group as the next FTSE 100 promotion candidate.
CSR (CSR) was down 35p at 1455.00p on profit taking, despite news that Lehman Brothers also noted the blue tooth group as 'overweight' with a price target of 1550.00p.
Wolfson (WLF) followed CSR and is down 1.84% at 545.75p.
