FTSE stands still on Tuesday

Banks saw their share values fall with Alliance & Leicester, Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland down 0.1-3.0 per cent.

Pharmaceuticals also suffered with AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline both down 2.0 per cent and Shire down 4.6 per cent.

Oil companies however had a good day with BG Group up 7.1 per cent, Cairn Energy up 4.9 per cent and Royal Dutch Shell up 0.8 per cent. Tullow Oil soared around 24 per cent after a big oil find offshore of Ghana.

Mining companies were also up with BHP Billiton, Kazakhmys, Rio Tinto, Vedanta Resources and Xstrata up 2.7-4.9 per cent.

Capita Group also performed well, rising 3.3 per cent.

British Airways and Thomson Reuters were among the losers of the day, falling 3.9 and 3.4 per cent respectively.