(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) There were signs today FTSE100 would set another new high but it wasn't to be with the blue chip index closing a shade down - at 6946 - around three points lower.
It came on a day of US GDP data and as German politicians approved Greece's four month extension plan but it still has to be signed off in the Eurozone.
David Madden at IG Index said: "European equity markets barely reacted to the news that Germany agreed to Greece’s reforms and in reality Greece was never going to get its application for an extension knocked back.
"The song and dance that played out over the last month about Greece’s finances was a political stage show and we will go through it all over again in a few months when the extension runs out."
Across the pond a revision to the GDP figures for the fourth quarter showed the giant US economy had grown at a slower pace than originally estimated but was still better than had been expected.
The economy grew at a revised 2.2% in the fourth quarter.
At the time of writing the Dow Jones is off around 27 points.
Lending support in London was airlines giant IAG () which owns whose shares added 3.66% to go to 580p.
It issued a bumper set of full-year numbers with annual pre-tax profit in 2014 jumped to €828mln while operating profits nearly doubled to reach more than €1bn.
It was enough for the airline group currently bidding for Irish carrier Aer Lingus to raise its outlook for this year by 20% - it now forecasts an operating profit of €2.2bn this year.
Also up was Lloyds () to 79p a gain of 0.64% as investors welcomed news the partly state-owned lender would be paying out a divi to shareholders for the first time since 2008.
It comes as lender still partly state-owned said it made a profit before tax of £1.8bn last year ahead of estimates and up from the £415mln achieved in 2013.
The UK government - with its 23.9% holdings in the firm – is set to receive £130mln of the payment.
The biggest Footsie loser was properties () which was down 5.10% to 353.5p. The big banks were also trailing with RBS down 5.02% to 367.2p.
High Street bookie () lost 3.28% to 377.7p as buyers decided not to take a punt on shares as revenue was less than expected in its first quarter.
A big gainer was junior iron ore group () whose flagship project is Tete in Mozambique.
The firm is set to be taken over by its major shareholder & Development.
AMDF subsidiary Redbird is offering 6p per share for the shares in Baobab it does not already own which values the group at £20.5mln. BAO shares surged 30.3% to 5.375p.
Also on the up was UK-focused mining group Wolf Minerals () which added 2.05% to 18.625p as it revealed it had made significant progress in its first half as it works to open the first new metal mine in Britain for more than 45 years.
The Hemerdon tungsten project in Devon was 67% complete at the end of December and the project remains on track for the commissioning of the processing plant in the coming weeks.
According to the schedule for the contractor GR Engineering Services will hand over the project to Wolf during the third quarter.
Explorer () added 10% to 0.165p as it said it was planning more testing to determine whether part of a gold scheme in Argentina is viable.
ECR reported moderate to high gold grades at the Maestro Agüero prospect on its SLM project.
But it said the grades changed abruptly along the strike indicating a nugget gold effect and it would need to do a bulk sample next month to get a better idea of grade.
Stephen Clayson chief executive said: "The appeal of the SLM project has always lain in the idea of relatively near-term production from small deposits and Maestro Agüero appears to be shaping up as the most likely starting point although there is no certainty at present that the prospect is a viable mining target.
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