London stocks ended flat on Friday as investors paused for breath following record highs earlier in the week and ahead of the long weekend in the US, with miners under the cosh as copper prices fell.
The FTSE 100 closed steady at 10,235.29.
Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: "With a long weekend ahead of them it was likely that some of the enthusiasm on Wall Street would ebb away, and European markets have followed suit after a very good start to the year for global equity markets.
"Monday's wobble around Jerome Powell is long-forgotten, and while earnings season hasn't delivered any major upside surprises so far, it has done enough to support stocks this week. The focus moves now towards tech stocks, still the major driver of earnings even if their lead has eroded of late."
In equity markets, heavily-weighted miners slumped as copper prices fell on reports that Chinese regulators have ordered exchanges to remove servers operated by high frequency traders from their data centres. Antofagasta, Glencore and Anglo American all lost ground.
On the upside, defence firm BAE Systems rallied as Nato personnel from a number of European countries landed in Greenland for an exercise after Trump restated his desire to own the island.
Neil Wilson, UK investor strategist at Saxo Markets, said it was "hardly a show of force, but a reminder of what's at stake here".
The gains also came amid news the UK will open a business centre in Kyiv this year to help defence start-ups send more military hardware into Ukraine.
Animal genetics specialist Genus surged to the top of the FTSE 250 as it lifted guidance on the back of robust trading.
The company said it had performed "strongly" in the six months to 31 December, and now expects adjusted pre-tax profits to come in around £50m in actual currency, ahead of internal forecasts. Including a milestone payment from Beijing Capital Agribusiness (BCA), interim profits are expected to be £55.6m.
Looking further ahead, the firm also flagged full-year profits were now tracking "moderately" above the top end of current market expectations.
Ninety One rose after it said assets under management increased to £159.8bn in the third quarter, from £152.1bn at the end of September.
Impax Environmental Markets gained after saying it planned to offer activist investor Saba a cash exit via a tender offer for up to 100% of its stake at close to net asset value while giving investors who want to remain the ability to do so.
Close Brothers shot up after RBC Capital Markets upgraded the stock to 'outperform' from 'sector perform' and hiked the price target to 625p from 475p. "We think the bank has more fat that it can trim on costs, which is not reflected in consensus," RBC said.
"It's tight, but we think that CBG's CET1 ratio can absorb a full top-up for motor finance, incremental restructuring and mid-to-high single digit loan growth."
Market Movers
FTSE 100 (UKX) 10,235.29 -0.04%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 23,279.98 0.00%
techMARK (TASX) 5,906.17 0.52%
FTSE 100 - Risers
BAE Systems (BA.) 2,088.00p 2.30%
NATWEST GROUP (NWG) 652.80p 2.16%
British Land Company (BLND) 412.20p 1.98%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 2,612.00p 1.95%
Schroders (SDR) 467.00p 1.88%
National Grid (NG.) 1,201.50p 1.74%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,878.50p 1.51%
The Sage Group (SGE) 1,054.00p 1.39%
Barratt Redrow (BTRW) 380.60p 1.36%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 650.00p 1.33%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Flutter Entertainment (DI) (FLTR) 14,455.00p -4.40%
Pearson (PSON) 939.00p -4.05%
Metlen Energy & Metals (MTLN) 43.00p -3.80%
Entain (ENT) 703.00p -3.27%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 3,560.00p -2.86%
Glencore (GLEN) 478.60p -2.53%
Anglo American (AAL) 3,240.00p -2.41%
Pershing Square Holdings Ltd NPV (PSH) 4,644.00p -2.19%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 81.66p -2.13%
Smurfit Westrock (DI) (SWR) 3,173.00p -1.92%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Genus (GNS) 2,835.00p 7.79%
AEP Plantations (AEP) 1,525.00p 6.64%
Impax Environmental Markets (IEM) 431.00p 5.90%
Ninety One (N91) 240.20p 5.07%
Close Brothers Group (CBG) 535.00p 5.00%
Ceres Power Holdings (CWR) 312.40p 4.06%
Ashmore Group (ASHM) 234.40p 3.99%
TBC Bank Group (TBCG) 3,990.00p 3.77%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 2,410.00p 3.66%
Me Group International (MEGP) 139.80p 3.25%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
RTW Biotech Opportunities Ltd (RTW) 2.15p -3.59%
Playtech (PTEC) 271.00p -3.56%
IP Group (IPO) 56.60p -2.92%
BlackRock World Mining Trust (BRWM) 929.00p -2.72%
Endeavour Mining (EDV) 3,996.00p -2.68%
Carnival (CCL) 2,164.00p -2.43%
Travis Perkins (TPK) 661.50p -2.43%
Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 323.00p -2.12%
Breedon Group (BREE) 332.80p -2.06%
WPP (WPP) 315.60p -2.02