The FTSE 100 remained stable today with a late drop putting the index into negative territory.

At close of play, the FTSE 100 was at 4,018.23 – a drop of 12.43 points or -0.31 per cent – after New York losses lowered sentiment in London.

At 12:04 EDT (17:04 BST), the Dow Jones was down 0.98 per cent to 7,809.39.

The day in London also saw a mixed bag of gains and losses.

Miner Lonmin lead the way, rising 9.52 per cent, followed by commodity inspection group Intertek up 8.42 per cent.

Software developer Autonomy rose 6.90 per cent and Next gained 6.55 per cent.

Schroders led the falls down 6.92 per cent, while Schroders non-voting dropped 6.32 per cent after its pre-tax profits for the first quarter fell 54 per cent.

Eurasian fell 6.30 per cent and Aviva was down 5.15 per cent.

David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Index, said: “With the Budget out of the way it was back to business as usual today for the stock market with strength for miners and some of the retailers helping to keep sentiment positive.

“Although the short term is still positive, it is fair to say that there is still seems to be a lack of commitment in either direction when it comes to deciding which way the next big swing for the markets is going to be.”

He added; “These are choppy markets with not much in the way of direction – the FTSE today is roughly where it was three weeks ago and there seems to be little sign of this meandering changing soon.”