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.

Other big losers included software house Autonomy, giving up 18p of yesterday's strong gains at 1,797p, building merchant Wolseley, off 24p at 1,625p, and oil services group Petrofac, 13p light at 1,203p.

Strength in pharmaceuticals kept falls in the main index to a minimum, with GlaxoSmithKline topping the blue chip leaderboard, up 47.5p at 1,272p. AstraZeneca jumped 15p at 2,910.5p and Shire added 15p at 1,455p.

British Airways shrugged off news of increasing support for cabin crew union Unite in its battle with the airline, the shares gaining 1.7p at 242.5p. The airline was helped by being reiterated buy at UBS, with the target raised to 295p from 250p.

Shares in Rolls-Royce climbed 7p at 588p after the power systems company announced it has won its second contract in two years from Gas Authority India. The new contract is valued at $90m.

Among the retailers, Marks & Spencer improved 2.2p at 356.1p on news Sir Stuart Rose will step down in July, earlier than previously planned, and take a 23% cut pay.

Supermarket operators saw some improvement, with Morrisons ahead 1.2p at 296.7p, Tesco up 2.75p at 437.5p and Sainsbury 0.2p better at 332.2p.

Other notable blue chip gainers included security group G4S, recouping some of its recent big losses, rallying 4.2p at 260.1p. Credit checker Experian ticked up 14p at 642p and global brewer SABMiller added 36p at 1,925p.

In the midcaps, the bus and train operators continued to enjoy the bid approach for Arriva, with FirstGroup gaining 1,4p at 380.9p and Stagecoach driving on 5.6p at 192.7p. Arriva itself added a further 31p at 708p.

High street bakery chain Greggs improved 18.3p at 455.3p after it reported pretax profit up 8% to £48.8m for the year to 2nd January and raised its dividend 11%.

Marketing firm Aegis slipped 1.7p at 125.9p after it reported in-line results in what it called a 'tough' year.

Software services company Stilo International slipped 0.2p to 1.18p when it said sales revenues fell 33% in the year to end-December 2009.

Story provided by Business Financial Newswire