Dividend cheer for the three million shareholders of Lloyds Banking Group and other strong corporate earnings managed to spur the London market to a new record.
The FTSE 100 Index lifted to a new intra day high of 6,967.2 points in the afternoon after lower US growth figures reduced the chance of a rate hike. This new record is just above a previous all-time high of 6,958.89 points hit on Tuesday.
But FTSE 100 Index later fell back to close 3.1 points down at 6946.7.
Lloyds posted a four-fold rise in annual profits to £1.8 billion and was joined by British Airways owner International Airlines Group after it forecast that profits this year will be much better than it originally expected.
Lloyds shares rose by half a penny to 79p and are now trading comfortably above the price the Government paid in its 2008 bailout as the company said it will hand £535 million to its shareholders in a first dividend in seven years.
In contrast to the performance of Lloyds, fellow part-nationalised lender Royal Bank of Scotland fell sharply for the second session in a row.
The stock has been at a three-year high in recent sessions but shares fell back in the wake of another full-year loss on Thursday.
Analysts have kept their sell ratings after a disappointing fourth quarter performance and amid uncertainty over whether the company will be able to resume dividend payments next year.
Shares were down five per cent 19.4p to 367.2p in a session when Barclays also dipped 5.2p to 256.9p ahead of its annual results on Tuesday.
The pound was up against the US dollar, at 1.55, after official US data revised down fourth quarter growth to 2.2 per cent from 2.6 per cent. Sterling was also up against the euro, at 1.38.
International Airlines Group, which has been lifted by the turnaround of Spanish carrier Iberia, was almost four per cent higher after it upped its profits guidance for this year.
Helped by lower oil prices, the group posted operating profits of 1.39 billion euro (£1 billion) for 2014 and said it expects the figure to exceed 2.2 billion euro (£1.6 billion) in the current period. Shares rose 20.5p at 580p.
Other FTSE 100 risers included Standard Chartered as investors continued to return to the stock following the boardroom shake-up involving the departures of both chief executive Peter Sands and chairman Sir John Peace. The stock was more than 1.5 per cent higher, up 15p to 991p.
William Hill posted one of the biggest falls in the FTSE 250 Index after it revealed that a bad weekend of football results in January cost it £13 million.
The stock was three per cent lower, off 12.8p to 377.7p.
The biggest risers in the FTSE 100 Index were International Airlines Group up 20.5p at 580p, Associated British Foods up 76p at 3125p, Intertek up 60p at 2530p and Intercontinental Hotels Group up 55p at 2650p
The biggest fallers in the FTSE 100 Index were Intu Properties down 19p at 353.5p, Royal Bank of Scotland down 19.4p at 367.2p, Barclays down 5.2p at 256.9p and Weir Group down 30p at 1704p.
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