The FTSE 100 ended the day much where it started despite falling over 100 points in afternoon trading.

At close of play, with traders very much eying the Budget tomorrow, the index stood down 0.09 per cent – or 3.40 point – to 3,987.46.

The London afternoon jump followed gains in New York – where the Dow rubbed itself off after yesterday’s drops to stand up 0.77 per cent at 12:14 EDT (17:14 BST).

Financial maintained a drag on the FTSE 100 today – with Lloyds Banking down 9.09 per cent to 95.00p.

Aviva fell 7.48 per cent, Royal Bank of Scotland dropped 5.85 per cent to 30.60p, Old Mutual slipped 5.52 per cent and Barclays was down 4.78 per cent.

Leading the gains was miner Eurasian up 8.27 per cent.

Associated Foods and Tesco rose 4.89 per cent and 4.88 per cent respectively as their results beat expectations and Thomas Cook gained 3.36 per cent.

David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index, explained inflation data took much of traders’ attention today.

“There has been an element of the waiting game in London ahead of Wednesday’s budget. As far as stock markets are concerned this could end up being something of a damp squib though – it is difficult to see what rabbits can be pulled out of the hat at the moment to change the short- to medium-term mood for the economy,” he said.

“And the announcements may well be of more interest politically than economically anyway.”

He added with the FTSE 100 running out of steam, the prospects for the coming weeks were for “more weakness to unwind at least part of this recent rally”.