At midday, the FTSE100 was up 20.25 points at 5,567.16 with the FTSE250 off 27.4 at 10,252.8 and the FTSE Smallcaps 1.29 points better at 2,779.35.

NEW YORK

US stock futures wavered as investors kept fretted ahead of decisions by the European Central Bank and the EU leaders summit.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 15 points at 12,199, S&P500 futures dipped 3 points at 1,260 and Nasdaq 100 futures eased 2 points at 2,319.

LONDON MARKETS

Investors were cautious ahead of the EU summit and ECB rate decision. The BoE Monetary Policy Committee kept the UK repo rate and QE level unchanged in their meeting today, as widely anticipated.

Mining shares put in a stuttering performance, but Kazakhmys topped the blue chip leaderboard with a gain of 22.25p at 963.25p after an upgrade from Nomura. The broker also upgraded Chilean copper miner Antofagasta helping the shares to rise 16p at 1,246p.

Meanwhile, Vedanta Resources improved 17p at 1,116p on news it has completed the acquisition of a controlling stake in Cairn Energy's Indian subsidiary Cairn India. Cairn shares dropped 1.25p at 276.55p in response.

Financial stocks also put in a less-than-convincing performance, with Royal Bank of Scotland up 0.13p at 22.27p and Barclays rising 2.15p at 189.5p, while Asia-facing Standard Chartered gained a more modest 4.25p at 1,459.25p after reporting that weakness in Asian currencies was impacting its returns. On the downside, Lloyds lost 0.175p at 26.91p.