At the close of business, the FTSE100 was up just 7.54 points at 5,530.04 with the FTSE250 32.44 points higher at 9,589.53 and the FTSE AIM index 7.14 points better at 680.67.

NEW YORK

US stocks turned slightly higher in late morning trade after pleasing US services industry data for December.

Heading into the close in London, the Dow Jones Industrial was up 18 points at 10,590, the S&P500 was ahead a point at 1,137 and the Nasdaq Composite was 3 points higher at 2,311.

LONDON MARKETS

UK Services PMI showed a marginal improvement in December but fell short of expectations and Nationwide's latest reading on consumer confidence showed a worrying fall.

Retailers hogged the limelight in London again today, although it was in a negative sense, with banks and miners providing the main support.

Royal Bank of Scotland was the best of the bankers, up 1.28p at 36.68p, while Barclays advanced 8.9p at 307p and Lloyds Banking Group ticked up 0.56p at 54.59p.