At the close of business, the FTSE100 was up 8.39 points at 5,625.65 with the FTSE250 ahead 87.12 points at 9,941.56 and the FTSE Smallcaps 13.77 points better at 2,886.03.

NEW YORK

US stocks moved slightly higher after better-than-expected February retail sales trumped data showing a dip in consumer sentiment in March.

Approaching the close in London, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 13 points at 10,625, the S&P500 was flat at 1,150 and the Nasdaq Composite unchanged at 2,369.

LONDON MARKETS

Banking shares provided some of the best and worst performers of the main index today.

Global banker HSBC was the biggest blue chip casualty, down 10.6p at 684p, in the wake of its revelations of the theft of data of its Swiss account holders, also hit by a downgrade to neutral from buy at Goldman Sachs.

Elsewhere in the banking sector, Royal Bank of Scotland climbed close to the top of the FTSE leaderboard with a gain of 2.02p at 42.57p, while Lloyds added 1.93p at 58.47p and Barclays improved 8.1p at 351.85p.

The insurers were well represented on the gainers list, with Old Mutual up 1.6p at 123.5p, Aviva 1.7p better at 395.9p and Legal & General ahead 1.2p at 80.1p.