Britain's leading shares closed little changed on Wednesday as pressure from a raft of stocks trading ex-dividend and a fall for power generator British Energy was countered by buoyant miners and renewed hopes of a pause for interest rates.
Vedanta was the most prominent gainer, jumping 5.8 percent, as talk circulated of a take-over offer for the India-focused miner, although traders said no names were being suggested as possible bidders. Other miners also rose, with BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata all over 3 percent higher.
British Energy was the main loser, ending down 4.5 percent as the UK's biggest power generator said it could miss this year's output goal. The news overshadowed a forecast-beating leap in first-quarter earnings from the group.
The FTSE index of the UK's 100 biggest shares was down 1.3 points at 5,896.6 by the close but above a session low of 5,848.7 points. Total UK turnover reached a moderate 2.3 billion shares. A strong performance for miners and a rally on Wall Street helped shares recover their poise from initial falls.
Sentiment was boosted on both sides of the Atlantic by economic data that suggested a pause in interest rates was more likely.
In the US, a tame increase in consumer prices added weight to the view the Federal Reserve could keep rates on hold in the short term, while in the UK, minutes from the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee contained little to suggest policymakers were gunning to hike rates again any time soon.
"Market feeling is that interest rates are not going up as fast as it seemed last week, which goes towards a softer landing as far as equities markets are concerned," said Roger Cursley, a UK strategist at Investec. "There is positive movement in miners and financials and the main weakness is in utilities, impacted partly by their traditional defensive characteristics."
Utility stocks featured among the heaviest fallers, with blue chips International Power and Scottish & Southern Energy both down 1.8 percent and mid-cap Northumbrian Water off 3.8 percent.
Stocks trading ex-dividend such as bank Barclays and telecoms group BT also weighed on the market, accounting for about 15 points of pressure on the FTSE. In the energy sector, oil giant BP slipped 1 percent after shareholders filed a lawsuit against BP's top executives, accusing them of letting down investors by failing to repair a pipeline that forced the closure of part of its Alaskan Prudhoe Bay oilfield.
On the mid-cap index, Inmarsat shares rose 4.4 percent on continued speculation it could benefit from the US auction of licences for advanced wireless services this week. Ashtead Group was another feature, up 6.5 percent, as brokerage Panmure repeated its "buy" rating on the shares.
"The market seems to be factoring in a US recession for Ashtead, which looks too harsh," said Charlie Cottam, director of equity research at Panmure Gordon. He also said talk had been circulating that Ashtead's chief executive could sell a stake in the group, but that the company had denied this.
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