Britain's blue chips ended with slim gains on Thursday, although below the session's two-week high as poor UK sales data hit retailers, while a relentless surge in oil prices kept a lid on market sentiment.
Most leisure stocks rose, with bookmaker William Hill up 4.5 percent and hotel chain Hilton Group up 1.2 percent after analysts at UBS raised their ratings on both firms to "buy" from "neutral". Goldman Sachs was also positive on their short-term prospects.
BAE Systems topped the list of losers, down 2.6 percent after ABN AMRO, its joint house broker, repeated a "hold" rating ahead of interim results and said debt at the defence contractor might have risen.
The FTSE-100 fell back to a mere 7.4 point gain, or 0.17 percent, to close at 4,362.6, from an earlier intra-day peak of 4,381.4 - its highest level since August 6.
"Equities had been looking rather oversold, and we do see some valuations in stocks which we have not seen for long," said Alex Scott, an analyst at Seven Investment Management.
Market breadth was mixed, with 59 stocks rising while 38 issues fell. Volumes were lower at 1.2 billion shares compared with 1.7 billion a day earlier, hit by the holiday season.
"It looks like there is not enough steam left for a big move up," said a trader. "But activity is still dull and markets should stay at these levels."
Asset manager Amvescap gained 1.4 percent on speculation that it could soon reach an agreement with US regulators on a settlement of charges of mutual fund trading abuses and that the cost may be lower than had been expecte4d, traders said.
Oil prices struck a new record high above $48 a barrel on Thursday, spurred higher by renewed violence in Iraq, and the price rise renewed fears about the risks to corporate profits.
US light crude rose 93 cents to $48.20 a barrel. US prices have set record peaks in all but one of the past 15 trading sessions and are up nearly 29 percent, since the end of June.
"There are plenty of things that could cause a pushback in oil prices, and if we do see so, then it could a catalyst for equities," said Scott from Seven Investment Management.
Wall Street was lower in late morning trade, pulled down by high oil prices.
In London, retailer Next fell 1.27 percent, while Marks & Spencer lost 0.50 percent as official UK data showed clothing sales fell at their sharpest rate since September 2002, hit by poor weather.
Bad news also came from mid-cap sportswear chain JJB Sports, which warned that its annual profits would come about 20 percent short of market forecasts due to dismal summer weather, taking its shares 15 percent lower.
"This statement highlights that other clothing retailers will be suffering too," said Mark Charnock, analyst at Investec Securities.