Light trading ahead of the swearing in of America's 45th president – Donald Trump.
Strong updates from miner Anglo American and upbeat German business confidence data lifts top flight stocks.
FTSE 100 Index shrugs off the worst combined services and manufacturing data for seven years.
Economist says investors worry a credit crunch will hit mortgage demand and hurt house prices.
Panic spread among holidaymakers unable to exchange pounds into local currencies.
Online vehicle sales firm Auto Trader posts 27% rise in operating profits to £169.6m.
Seven of the 10 largest housebuilders in the country have seen their share prices drop since 2016 began.
Footsie investor considered the economic policies set out by the Chancellor to be positive for businesses.
Experts are largely expecting the MPC to hold off on hiking the rate, instead increasing it later in 2016.
Miners rallied but the surge was not enough to keep the Footsie in positive territory.
On the FTSE 250, Virgin Money jumped, after the company reported a solid set of results.
Barclays dropped almost 9% after it recorded a 2% fall in pre-tax profits over 2015.
The G20 countries left their meeting on Saturday without a proposal to boost the slowing global economy.
Index affected by volatility in oil market and 'high degree of uncertainty' on outcome of EU summit in Brussels
The FTSE 100 jumped 2.87% on Wednesday 17 February, building on Tuesday's gains.
The deal, which would increase oil prices, is contingent on Iran and Iraq joining in.
Reckitt Benckiser, IAG and Standard Chartered were the biggest riser on the FTSE 100.
The bluechip index and other stock markets in Europe were deep in the red, continuing the ongoing global rout.
The Footsie fell 0.86% meaning that the index has lost 6.3% since the start of the year.
The MPC surprised no one when it announced not to increase central interest rates.
In 2015, BP's annual profit fell 51% year-on-year to $5.9bn, while Shell predicted similar results.
The Chinese manufacturing PMI came in at 49.4, its lowest since August 2012.
