London’s leading shares index ended four days of gains today after ongoing talks in Greece over the country’s debt mountain kept traders on the sidelines.
The FTSE 100 Index closed 1.62 points lower at 5,728.55 as the Greek government held a third day of talks with creditors over a deal to get them to reduce the value of their Greek bond holdings.
The banking sector held onto gains however, with Royal Bank of Scotland up 0.4p at 27.4p and Barclays ahead 1.3p at 222.7p.
There was also a rise for Diageo, the drinks giant behind Johnnie Walker and Guinness, after Investec upgraded the stock to buy and lifted its target price. Shares were 12p higher at £13.93.
The focus of the retail sector was on the Office for National Statistics after it said Christmas was not quite the wash-out firms expected at the start of December.
Marks & Spencer was 7.7p higher at 334.7p, but Argos owner Home Retail Group fell 1.5p to 100.5p in the FTSE 250 Index.
Meanwhile, HMV saw its shares more than double, adding 4.7p at 7.1p, after it unveiled a rescue deal with its suppliers.
The biggest Footsie risers were Vedanta Resources up 51p at £11.46, Icap ahead 13.1p at 335.7p and Aviva up 8.9p at 350.9p
The biggest Footsie fallers were Weir Group down 125p at £19.54, Petrofac off 64p at £14.40, BP down 15p at 467.5p and International Power off 8.7p at 319.1p.
Elaine McLachlan, of investment manager and financial planning specialist Brewin Dolphin in Inverness, noted that Scottish risers included investment firm Aberdeen Asset Management up 3.4% to 233.5p and British Polythene gaining 2.9% to 355p.
Fallers included computer services firm Indigovision off 6.9% at 290p and regional newspaper publisher Johnston Press falling 5.0% to 5.8p.