At the close of business, the FTSE100 was up just 7.54 points at 5,530.04 with the FTSE250 32.44 points higher at 9,589.53 and the FTSE AIM index 7.14 points better at 680.67.

NEW YORK

US stocks turned slightly higher in late morning trade after pleasing US services industry data for December.

Heading into the close in London, the Dow Jones Industrial was up 18 points at 10,590, the S&P500 was ahead a point at 1,137 and the Nasdaq Composite was 3 points higher at 2,311.

LONDON MARKETS

UK Services PMI showed a marginal improvement in December but fell short of expectations and Nationwide's latest reading on consumer confidence showed a worrying fall.

Retailers hogged the limelight in London again today, although it was in a negative sense, with banks and miners providing the main support.

Royal Bank of Scotland was the best of the bankers, up 1.28p at 36.68p, while Barclays advanced 8.9p at 307p and Lloyds Banking Group ticked up 0.56p at 54.59p.

Amongst the miners, Xstrata advanced the furthest as metals prices picked up, ahead 41p at 1,229p, while Vedanta gained 76p at 2,830p and Rio Tinto added 3,633.5p.

With gold rising to $1,136 an ounce, Randgold Resources jumped 150p at 5,325p.

Business software firm Autonomy was the best blue chip performer of the session, ahead 90p at 1,560, after saying it expects to report 2009 results in line with consensus estimates, with strong cash conversion for the year.

Building materials group Wolseley was also well-placed, jumping to the top of the blue chip leaderboard, up 61p at 1,361p, despite warnings of a tough time ahead for the house builders.

Commercial property sank after a bright start following press comment that office rents in London as expected to soar as banks decide to remain in the city.

Hammerson dipped 1.8p at 407.2p, shrugging aside an upgrade to neutral from sell at UBS with the target price raised to 425p from 370p. Land Securities lost 4.5p at 662p and British Land moved 12.1p lower at 457.9p.

Also on the downside with blue chips, Marks & Spencer tumbled to the foot of the blue chip ladder, off 27.5p at 377.4p, as news of the first increase in sales for some considerable time was offset by a cautious outlook for the sector and a downgrade to hold from buy at Seymour Pierce.

The news soured the major retailers, with only Next making any progress at all, up a modest 1p at 2,101p.

Supermarket operators were all on the sell list, with Tesco the biggest faller, down 8.4p at 412.05p. Morrisons slipped 1.5p at 276.4p and Sainsbury dipped 1.9p at 318p ahead of its trading update tomorrow.

National Grid was under pressure on reports that gas shortages are expected in the wake of the cold UK weather. The shares fell 14.5p at 667.5p.

Cadbury suffered from the fallout from Warren Buffet's criticism of Kraft's bid antics and Hershey's reluctance to firm up on interest in the confectioner. Cadbury shares sank a further 7p at 772p.

Other notable blue chip losers included household goods conglomerate Reckitt Benckiser, down 57p at 3,260p, and FT publisher Pearson, off 13p at 873p.

Down the list, home delivery pizza outfit Domino's Pizza continued to impress, with sales for the quarter to 27th December up 15.6% to £112.4m, but profit-taking forced the shares down 4.7p at 305.3p.

Majestic Wine rose 12.5p at 227.5p when it said sales surged nearly 12% in the nine weeks to 4th January as its decision to cut its minimum order rule to 6 bottles went down well with customers.

Story provided by Business Financial Newswire