Little movement for FTSE Index

An attempted rally by the FTSE 100 Index fizzled out today as a lower opening for US stocks wiped out earlier gains.

The Footsie was up more than 1% at one point as Friday's 3% fall on European growth and sovereign debt fears tempted investors back into the fray.

But the blue-chip index lost momentum late in the session to close 0.3 points down at 5262.5 after Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average was dented by disappointing manufacturing data.

Currency markets were also in focus as the euro traded near four-year lows against the dollar - below 1.23 at one stage amid fears that measures to tackle deficits will kill off growth.

The pound also touched a year-low of 1.42 against the greenback at one stage, although it later strengthened to 1.44 as traders weighed up Chancellor George Osborne's independent fiscal watchdog to look into the Treasury books.

Ministers claimed they had found "black holes" in the budgets left behind by the outgoing Labour administration.

A clutch of miners featured among the early risers, but the heavyweight sector failed to hang onto gains and dragged the index down.

Oil major BP was another stock which lost ground, finishing 0.3p down at 529.9p after initially advancing when it said it had succeeded in capturing some of the oil and gas that is spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.

Royal Dutch Shell edged 5p higher to 1784.5p, but crude prices at a three-month low of 71 dollars a barrel also weighed on the sector.

Insurer Prudential, which finally launched its £14.5bn (€17bn) rights issue to fund the acquisition of AIA today, was down 8p to 534.5p and Standard Life slipped 3p to 187.2p.

Man Group was the biggest faller in the top flight after it said it would pay $1.6bn (€1.3bn) for rival GLG Partners. Concerns over the price of the deal meant shares dropped 9% or 19.6p to 201.9p.

British Airways - due to unveil record annual losses of around £600m (€702.6m) this week and facing industrial action - was another casualty as shares fell 2.4p to 200.5p.

Rival airline easyJet was the biggest faller in the FTSE 250 Index after the low-cost carrier suffered more disruption due to the volcanic ash cloud and founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou quit the board as part of his campaign to bring about a change of strategy at the company. Shares slumped 24.7p to 391p or 6%.

Outsourcing firm MITIE was heading the other way in the second tier after better than expected pre-tax profits of £91.7m (€107.4m) and an "unprecedented" bid pipeline. The stock was 8.2p higher at 238.2p or 4%.

The biggest Footsie risers were Standard Chartered up 69p to 1691p, Experian ahead 15.5p to 591p, Cable & Wireless up 1.85p to 83.85p, and British Land ahead 9.1p to 433.3p.

The biggest fallers were Man Group down 19.6p at 201.9p, Thomas Cook off 7.3p at 217.8p, Aviva down 9.9p at 317p and Rio Tinto off 95.5p at 3114.5p.