The Footsie marked time in the afternoon session, clinging on to a small gain, thanks to banking giants RBS and Barclays.
Both were deemed to have got off lightly as record fines were dished out by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to banks involved in rigging the foreign exchange market.
The two British banks were among a group of big name banks caned by the DoJ, and the fact that the US$2.4bn fine for Barclays (LON:BARC) and the US$395mln fine for Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) were regarded as lenient tells you most of what you need to know about the culture of the “casino” divisions of many major banks.
Barclays had set aside £2.05bn (US$3.2bn) to pay for the fine, so it is small wonder the shares rose 3.4% to 271.6p, while RBS climbed 1.8% to 354.7p.
The FTSE 100 index rose 12 points to 7,007, with mobile phone network operator Vodafone (LON:VOD) leading the way on speculation that the company could merge with private company Liberty Global after it called Vodafone a 'great fit'.
The mobile giant fell yesterday despite announcing the first rise in quarterly sales in almost three years. Shares recovered today however with a gain of 5.5% to 239p.
On the other side of the fence was high-end fashion label Burberry (LON:BRBY).
The company had to lower its full-year forecast after revealing profits for the year to 31 March were lower than expected. Shares eased more than 5% to 1,717p.
Financial service provider Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HL.) also struggled after it said profits were 0.2% lower than in the four months to 30 April despite record net inflows of £2.75bn.
The company also blasted the Financial Services Compensation Scheme which has more than doubled its bill in the past year. Shares eased 1.9% to 1,256p.
While the Footsie advanced, the FTSE 250 shed 41 points at 18,136, despite strong performances by Bank of Georgia (LON:BGEO) and Crest Nicholson (LON:CRST).
Bank of Georgia Holdings, up 6.5%, revealed a 16.2% year-on-year increase in profits in the first quarter, although the number was down 6.2% quarter-on-quarter.
Crest Nicholson (LON:CRST), up 3.4%, was lifted after Deutsche Bank pushed up the target price of the house builder to 402p from 355p following yesterday's trading update.
Conversely, Invesco has dumped 15mln shares in the US-focused science company and FTSE 250 constituent Allied Minds (LON:ALM), which was more than it had indicated to the market it was going to sell. Shares dropped 8.5% to 595p.
Top of the tree today was Global Brands (LON:GBR), which rose by two-thirds, much to the bemusement of management, which said it knew of no reason for the share price movement.
Meanwhile, proximity market expert Proxama (LON:PROX) announced its third contract this week, this time with the Navy Federal Credit Union.
The news comes on the same day as founder Neil Garner is to step down after another year of losses. Shares jumped 11.4% to 2.2p.