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.

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. BA shares climbed 12.1p at 198.4p.

Commodity stocks were largely positive as metals prices rose on dollar weakness, although Fresnillo and Randgold Resources slipped lower, down 6p at 835p and 6p at 4,553p, respectively, as gold and silver prices eased from record highs.

Of the rest, Antofagasta was the strongest, up 12.5p at 852.5p, while Anglo American gained 31p at 2,375p and Rio Tinto moved ahead 19p at 2,893p.

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 9.5p at 348.2p, while Hammerson gained 10.3p at 419.3p and Land Securities rose 14.5p at 687.5p.

On the downside with blue chips, profit-takers took the steam out of Rentokil Initial, down 8p at 104p 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 3.5p at 536.5p, despite a surge in third-quarter pre-tax profits.

Household goods makers Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser were also prominant among the losers, down 10p at 1,784p and 10p at 3,020p.

Among the midcaps, sugar refiner Tate & Lyle edged up 3.7p at 460.6p as it reported profits falling in the half year to end-September, despite sales up 7% to £1.82bn in the period.

Story provided by Business Financial Newswire