At the close of play, the FTSE100 was up 17.08 points at 5,142.72 with the FTSE250 ahead 62.29 points at 9,082.69 and the FTSE Smallcaps 2.19 points lower at 2,778.63.

NEW YORK

US stocks were slightly lower in late morning trade, following news that unemployment rose to the highest level in over 26 years in October.

Approaching the close in London, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 19 points at 9,987, the S&P500 fell 2 points at 1,065 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 3 points to 2,102.

LONDON MARKETS

Financial issues made modest progress, following reports from Royal Bank of Scotland of a Q3 operating loss of £1.525bn, down from £3.533bn in Q2. Core business operating profit was £1.193bn and pre-impairment profit, adjusted for fair value of own debt, improved to £2.2bn.

Shares in RBS rose 1.85p at 37.06p, while Lloyds Banking Group added 1.81p at 84.8p, benefiting from an upgrade to buy at Citigroup with a target price of 104p. Barclays gained 4.15p at 336.5p and HSBC added 13.8p at 683.3p.

Selected insurers also moved ahead, with Resolution the best of them, up 1p at 96p, with Prudential ahead 5p at 578p and Legal & General gaining 0.4p at 79.8p.

Fund managers were in demand as investors revisited yesterday's upbeat news from Man Group. Schroders advanced 25p to 1,126p and Man Group added 4.7p at 329.5p, helped by an upgrade to buy from add at Numis.

British Airways was the best blue chip performer, despite reporting a record loss before tax of £292m in the half-year to end-September and as CEO Willie Walsh called for the unions to withdraw plans for a strike ballot and resume talks, investors preferring to highlight the slowing of the rate of decline in premium traffic. BA shares climbed 12.5p at 198.8p.

Commodity stocks were largely positive as metals prices rose on dollar weakness, with gold futures touching a new high of $1,100 an ounce.

Antofagasta closeed up 13.5p at 853.5p, while Anglo American gained 42p at 2,386p, Rio Tinto moved ahead 43p at 2,917p and Randgold Resources recovered from a weak start to add 35p by the close at 4,594p.

Commercial property stocks attracted attention as Segro announced it has sold Great Western Industrial Park in Southall, West London for £110.4m. Segro shares lifted 7.1p at 345.8p, while Hammerson gained 5.5p at 414.5p and Land Securities rose 13.5p at 686.5p.

On the downside with blue chips, profit-takers took the steam out of Rentokil Initial, down 7p at 105p the biggest blue chip casualty of the session, as the conglomerate revealed adjusted profit before tax was £49.6m, up 114.7% (81.5% Constant currency) in the third quarter.

Prosthetics maker Smith & Nephew dropped 4p at 536p, despite a surge in third-quarter pre-tax profits.

Oil majors lost ground as crude slipped below $78 a barrel, with Shell off 12p at 1,754.5p, BG Group down 17p at 1,078.5p and BP 3.2p lower at 583.9p.

Among the midcaps, sugar refiner Tate & Lyle added 7.6p at 464.5p, although it reported profits falling in the half year to end-September, despite sales up 7% to £1.82bn in the period.

Broadcaster ITV rose 0.16p at 48.96p, shrugging off news that STV Group is set to file a £35m counter-claim against it, alleging abuse of video-on-demand rights. The move follows ITV's legal action against STV for a potential net figure of £15m-£20m.

Housebuilder Galliford Try ticked up 0.5p at 345.5p after it said the encouraging start to its financial year in housebuilding had continued into the autumn selling season.

Story provided by Business Financial Newswire