Shares in the company were trading at 140.5p, a rise of 6.4%, this afternoon after SMG chairman Don Cruikshank cautiously reassured investors at the company's AGM that an advertising recovery had begun.
"The advertising market has gradually become more stable in 2002, with a challenging first quarter, as we anticipated, being followed by an improving trend in the second," Cruikshank said.
Reassuring investors, Cruikshank added that although the World Cup has boosted revenue, there were further signs of an upturn on the way.
"Undoubtedly, the World Cup has boosted May and June, particularly in TV and radio, but continued growth in July and some early but tentative signs of improvement across the remainder of the summer are evident across most of the sectors in which we operate," he said.
As well as owning two of Scotland's regional ITV companies, SMG also owns Virgin Radio, the Scottish broadsheet daily newspaper The Herald, and cinema advertising company Pearl & Dean.
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