At high noon, the FTSE100 was up just 8.17 points at 5,133.81 with the FTSE250 ahead 58.89 points at 9,079.29 and the FTSE Smallcaps 2.8 points better at 2,783.62.

NEW YORK

US stock futures showed little change ahead of non-farm payroll data.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were down a point, S&P500 futures were a fraction lower at 1,062.5 and Nasdaq 100 futures ticked up a little at 1,719.57.

LONDON MARKETS

Financial issues made modest progress in the morning session, 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 2.16p at 37.37p, while Lloyds Banking Group added 2.55p at 83.02p, benefiting from an upgrade to buy at Citigroup with a target price of 104p. Barclays gained 8.35p at 340.7p and HSBC added 10.9p at 680.4p.

Selected insurers also moved ahead, with Prudential the best of them, up 7.5p at 580.5p and Aviva gaining 1.5p at 397.2p.

Fund managers were in demand as investors revisited yesterday's upbeat news from Man Group. Schroders advanced 19p to 1,120p and Man Group added 9.5p at 334.3p.