The FTSE 100 struggled to make headway on Tuesday after the UK’s unemployment rate hit a near four-year high amid a faltering jobs market.
London’s blue-chip index ended down 2.1 points to finish the day at 8602.92, a 0.02% fall.
Earlier in the day, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the UK’s labour market was “cooling”, with average regular earnings growth falling to 5.6% in the three months to March.
The ONS said the rate of unemployment rose to 4.5% in the quarter to March, the highest since June to August 2021.
Elsewhere, figures showed that retail sales grew 7% in April compared with the previous year, according to the British Retail Consortium and KPMG.
There was also optimism after US inflation unexpectedly slowed and China lowered the rate of import tariffs on American goods, in another de-escalation of the trade war between the countries.
In Europe, Germany’s Dax rose 0.23% and France’s Cac 40 rose 0.3%.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 was up 0.89% as UK markets were closing, while the Dow Jones was down 0.25%.
Sterling was up 0.74% against the US dollar at 1.3274, while it was 0.05% up against the euro at 1.1882.
In company news, Marks & Spencer revealed that customer personal data has been taken by hackers after it was hit by a damaging cyber attack.
Chief executive Stuart Machin said the data had been accessed thanks to the “sophisticated nature of the incident”.
Personal data that could have been accessed includes names, email addresses, postal addresses and dates of birth, according to M&S.
Shares in the retailer fell 0.3%.
And pub group Marston’s said it had returned to a profit in recent months after cutting costs and attracting customers during occasions such as Easter and Mother’s Day.
The company, which runs 1,333 pubs across the UK, said the first half of its financial year had been a period of “significant momentum”.
Chief executive Justin Platt told the PA news agency that the pub group’s beer gardens were “very popular”, with a million pints of draught sold across the group over the recent Bank Holiday weekend.
Shares rose 3.5% on Tuesday.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Entain, up 43.4p to 764p, IAG, up 11p to 322.7p, Anglo American, up 75.5p to 2237.5p, Ashtead, up 141p to 4452p, and St James’s Place, up 32p to 1095.5p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were DCC, down 330p to 4740p, GSK, down 41.5p to 1358p, Diageo, down 59p to 2118p, Segro, down 17.4p to 648p, and Severn Trent, down 58p to 2576p.
