END-OF-DAY REPORT: Headline shares closed slightly higher, banks providing some of the best and worst FTSE performers and rallying mining stocks underpinning gains, but with BSkyB topping the leaderboard.

At the close of business, the FTSE100 was up 8.39 points at 5,625.65 with the FTSE250 ahead 87.12 points at 9,941.56 and the FTSE Smallcaps 13.77 points better at 2,886.03.

NEW YORK

US stocks moved slightly higher after better-than-expected February retail sales trumped data showing a dip in consumer sentiment in March.

Approaching the close in London, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 13 points at 10,625, the S&P500 was flat at 1,150 and the Nasdaq Composite unchanged at 2,369.

LONDON MARKETS

Banking shares provided some of the best and worst performers of the main index today.

Global banker HSBC was the biggest blue chip casualty, down 10.6p at 684p, in the wake of its revelations of the theft of data of its Swiss account holders, also hit by a downgrade to neutral from buy at Goldman Sachs.

Elsewhere in the banking sector, Royal Bank of Scotland climbed close to the top of the FTSE leaderboard with a gain of 2.02p at 42.57p, while Lloyds added 1.93p at 58.47p and Barclays improved 8.1p at 351.85p.

The insurers were well represented on the gainers list, with Old Mutual up 1.6p at 123.5p, Aviva 1.7p better at 395.9p and Legal & General ahead 1.2p at 80.1p.

Hedge fund manager Man Group perked up 4.2p at 252.3p in the hope that something positive will come out of Anglo-French talks on regulation.

Satellite operator Inmarsat gained 30p at 791.5p on the back of an upgrade to outperform from neutral at Exane BNP Paribas, with the target price raised to 910p.

Broadcaster BSkyB was the star performer amongst the blue chips today, jumping 28.5p at 598p in massive volumes, on City speculation that the company may be taken private.

Selected retailers were in demand, with DIY specialists again in focus. Home Retail added 4.7p at 276.7p after its recent well-received update, and midcap Travis Perkins rose 24p at 754p. However, B&Q owner Kingfisher lost 2.7p at 221p. Marks & Spencer put in a strong performance, up 4.4p at 358.1p.

British Airways shrugged off news that cabin crew will strike for three days from March 20th and for four days the following week, climbing 5.1p at 235.6p.

Commodity issues recovered from an early slip, with copper miner Antofagasta gaining 5p at 1,033p, ENRC up 51p at 1,173p and Kazakhmys up 21p at 1,517p, while Vedanta Resources jumped 61p at 2,747p.

Oil major Shell rallied as crude rose to $82.22 a barrel, edging up 1.5p at 1,841p, although BP dipped 3.8p at 619.9p on concerns over the cost of its Brazilian adventure.

Further on the downside with blue chips, pharmaceutical firms faced selling pressure, with AstraZeneca down 11p at 2,922p and GlaxoSmithKline 7p lower at 1,243p.

Cigarette makers were also under some pressure, with Imperial Tobacco off 23p at 2,078p and BAT 1p light at 2,233.5p.

Other notable losers included global brewer SABMiller, down 22p at 1,874p, Scottish & Southern Energy, off 13p at 1,124p, and household products conglomerates Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser, down 16p at 1,958p and 13p at 3,511p, respectively.

Down the list, iconic cooker maker AGA Rangemaster edged down 2p at 118p, despite reporting a small profit for 2009, adding that markets improved as the year progressed.

Climate Exchange, the exchange for trading emissions and environmental products, jumped 35.75p at 510p when it said it made a pro-forma pretax profit of £6.8m in the year to end-December 2009, up from £2.8m the prior year.

Regent Street department store Liberty climbed 20p to 295p when it confirmed it has received approaches which may or may not lead to an offer. Story provided by Business Financial Newswire