TalkTalk rang up stock market gains as it reported surging growth in its TV business, helping shares up 10% on a bright day for the sector.
BSkyB was also up as it posted a modest recovery from losses seen after it lost out in the battle for Champions League football to BT.
The wider FTSE-100 Index was flat, just 1.6 points lower at 6726.8, as fears over the tapering of America's huge asset-buying programme continued to weigh on investors.
The Dow Jones slipped back from the peak during the latest session while markets in Germany and France were also in the red.
In London, a sharper-than-expected drop in the Consumer Prices Index measure of inflation to 2.2% in October failed to lift equities, despite hitting a 13-month low as it fell from 2.7% in September.
But the data, seen as easing pressure to hike interest rates, threaten to bring a rally in sterling to an end, with the pound down one cent against the greenback to 1.59 US dollars and off a cent against the single currency to 1.19 euros.
On the FTSE-250 Index, TalkTalk Telecom surged 25.5p to 275.4p after it raised its revenue growth guidance thanks to strong demand from new TV customers.
Investors took heart despite heavy spending on TV expansion, sending underlying pre-tax profits plunging to just £9 million in the six months to the end of September, from £85 million a year earlier.
In the top-flight, blue chip rival Vodafone also advanced, gaining 3.9p to 231.2p, after announcing plans to ramp up spending by another £1 billion to £7bn as it reaps the benefit of the £84bn sale of Verizon Wireless.
But details of the investment update came as the company highlighted the impact of difficult trading conditions in Europe, with its service revenues down and adjusted operating profits 8.3% lower at £5.7 billion. Chief executive Vittorio Colao described trading conditions in Europe as "very tough" but said he was encouraged by signs of economic recovery.
Meanwhile, BSkyB shares gained 1%, or 11p, to 840p after falling nearly 11% in the prior session following its defeat over a deal to show European football for three seasons. BT, which took the prize with a £900 million bid, was also up, climbing 3p to 377.1p.
RSA, another heavy loser in the previous session - after its second profits warning in a week, following the discovery of "issues" in its Irish operation - pared back some of the fall, climbing 1.3p to 109.4p.
The biggest FTSE-100 risers were CRH, up 50p to 1609p, Vodafone up 3.9p to 231.2p, Kingfisher up 6.4p to 392.5p and Centrica up 5.1p to 360.4p.
The biggest fallers were Aberdeen Asset Management, off 19.7p at 416.9p, Fresnillo down 37p to 915.5p, Royal Bank of Scotland down 8.2p to 331.6p, and Anglo American down 33.5p 1440.5p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article