Market Update: Early advance stalls ahead of Mansion House speech

An early share price advance on the back of Wall Street's renewed bout of confidence is already petering out in London ahead of the chancellor's Mansion House speech this evening.

On the economic front the UK claimant count fell by a more-than-expected 30,000 last month to a 13 month low, but the wider measure of unemployment continued to climb.

By 10am the FTSE 100 index was up 27 points at 5,234 and the Mid-250 index was 45 points better at 9,926.

Royal Bank of Scotland claimed number one spot among the leaders with a gain of 1.22p to 45.44p following the sale of its Pakistan operations and expected sale of its branches to Santander.

Greenland drilling prospects underpinned Cairn Energy at 433p, up 7p and positive notes from Citigroup and UBS strengthened Aggreko at £14.68, up 23p.

London Stock Exchange improved 6p to 645p as UBS removed the stock from its Least Preferred List and brighter insurers had Standard Life almost 3p firmer at 189.3p.

A negative note from Citigroup continued to weigh on Schroders at £13.31, down 34p and Kingfisher receded 4p to 227.5p, not helped by a rating downgrade from Bank of America.

Inmarsat, downgraded by Bank of America yesterday, gave up another 11p to 768.5p.

BP slipped 2.85p more to 339.15p ahead of a meeting with President Obama when the embattled group will ensure oil spill claims are paid out in 'a' firm and timely manner.'

Bluebay Asset Management gained 15p to 302.6p as Numis suggested the shares had been oversold.

A increased dividend and a swing to first-half profits lifted RPC Group 9p to 252.5p and Irish Life & Permanent edged up 0.1200p to 1.85p as Deutsche Bank initiated coverage of the stock with a buy.

BRIT Insurance declined 9p to 909p on the absence of fresh bid developments and profit-taking cut 8p form Weir Group at £10.40