At the close of business, the FTSE100 was down 2.01 points at 5,642.62 with the FTSE250 off 4.32 points at 10,004.18 and the FTSE Smallcaps 7.77 points lower at 2,874.79.

NEW YORK

US stocks painted a mixed picture after the latest batch of economic data.

Approaching the close in London, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 10 points at 10,744, the S&P500 slipped 4 points at 1,162 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2 points at 2,387.

LONDON MARKETS

Trade in London today was muted, with little corporate news to provide direction, and with strength in pharma stocks all but balancing out weakness in the banking and mining sectors.

Banks accounted the worst FTSE100 performers, with Royal Bank of Scotland the biggest villain, down 1.55p at 42p. Lloyds fell 1.82p at 55.55p, Barclays lost 6.5p at 352.9p and HSBC eased 11.8p at 681p.

With the notable exception of Anglo American, up 5.5p at 2,733p, the mining sector was in the red, with Vedanta Resources the biggest casualty, down 65p at 2,706p. Easing copper prices pulled Antofagasta down 17p at 1,013p, Rio Tinto lost 37.5p at 3,729.5p and ENRC dropped 14p at 1,163p.

Engineering group Cobham dipped 0.8p at 253.8p on being downgraded to neutral from overweight at HSBC.