At the close of business, the FTSE100 was up just 7.51 points at 5,650.13 with the FTSE250 ahead 15.59 points at 10,019.77 and the FTSE Smallcaps 2.05 points better at 2,876.84.

NEW YORK

US stocks moved down in late morning trade on fears other countries could follow India's lead and raise interest rates.

Approaching the close in London, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 60 points at 10,719, the S&P500 lost 8 points at 1,158 and the Nasdaq Composite dipped 20 points at 2,371.

LONDON MARKETS

A busier day than of late in London was inspired by an upbeat statement from Lloyds Banking Group. The bank said that it had seen a strong start to 2010 and believes that it will be profitable on a combined businesses basis in 2010.

Lloyds shares soared 4.58p (8.2%) at 60.13p in heavy volumes, with Royal Bank of Scotland jumping 2p at 44p and Barclays ahead 4.7p at 357.6p. However, Asia-focused Standard Chartered moved down 1p at 1,770.5p and HSBC eased a penny to 680p.

South Africa based Investec, which joins the main list on Monday, gained 4p at 539p.

Hedge fund manager Man Group recovered from recent doubts with a gain of 3.1p at 244.1p, while Schroders rose 19p at 1,395p and private equity group 3i added 3.9p at 292.6.

British Airways continued to make progress, up 1p at 243.5p, despite hopes of a last minute deal with the Unite union being dashed as talks broke up without agreement and strikes from midnight appear inevitable.

Among the pharmaceutical stocks AstraZeneca made further moves higher, up 31.5p at 2,942p, Shire added 15p at 1,470p,and GlaxoSmithKline ticked up 14.5p at 1,286.5p.

Other notable blue chip gainers included defence contractor BAE Systems, up 9.2p at 385.7p, credit checker Experian, up 9.5p at 651.5p, software house Autonomy, 39p better at 1,836p, and cruise ship operator Carnival, ahead 80.57p at 2,650p.

Turning to the downside with blue chips, commodity prices fell in the afternoon pushing mining shares into the red.

Vedanta Resources sank to the foot of the table, down 84p at 2,622p, while Fresnillo fell 9.5p at 827p, Xstrata slipped 27p at 1,143p and Anglo American dropped 69p at 2.664p.

Gold miner Randgold Resources was one of the biggest losers, down 127p at 4,810p as the precious metal eased to $1,106 an ounce.

Cairn Energy was another major casualty, down 10.1p at 384p, ahead of annual results next week.

Cigarette makers eased with BAT losing 30p at 2,233.5p and Imperial Tobacco down 17p at 2,031p.

Utility groups were out of favour, with Drax slumping 7.2p at 363.3p, Scottish & Southern Energy off 15p at 1,102p and Centrica 7.1p lower at 290.9p.

Other notable casualties included commercial property firm Segro, off 9.2p at 318.8p, oil services specialist Petrofac, down 18p at 1,185p, and platinum processor Johnson Matthey, 7p lower at 1,747p.

Down the list, sports retailer Black Leisure edged up 0.5p at 61.5p after rejecting a bid from Sports Direct it considered inadequate. Shares in Sports Direct fell 0.7p at 105.1p in reaction.

Flooring specialist Headlam added 6.25p at 280p, although revealing that profit before tax fell 45% to £22m in the year to end-December. The group said it was optimistic about a return to growth in 2010.

Building services group T Clarke gained 9.5p at 158p when it reported profit before tax of £6.8m for the year to end-December and held its final dividend at 8.75p, giving an unchanged total of 13p.

Story provided by Business Financial Newswire