LONDON'S top-flight index edged back into positive territory, but struggled for momentum after the pound pushed ahead on the latest inflation data.
The FTSE 100 Index closed up 16.56 points to 7,365.5, with precious metals stocks pulling the market higher following a jump in the gold price by 1.2 per cent to $1,271 per ounce.
Randgold Resources lifted nearly five per cent, or 350p to 7,580p, and Fresnillo booked a 69p rise to 1,652p, after the price of gold climbed amid simmering political tensions between the United States and Russia.
However, sterling stopped the London market from rising any higher after March's inflation data inspired a healthy jump from the pound.
The UK currency was 0.5 per cent ahead versus the US dollar at 1.248 and 0.3 per cent up on the euro at 1.176 after the Consumer Price Index (CPI) held steady at 2.3 per cent last month.
The CPI reading, unchanged from February and in line with economists' expectations, was the joint highest level since September 2013.
The cost of living is expected to climb over the coming months, putting pressure on the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to hike interest rates beyond 0.25 per cent.
However, MPC members have urged caution over an imminent rise, with sterling's plunge since the EU referendum result vote squeezing consumers as companies pass down their soaring costs.
Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex, said: "There wasn't anything to really challenge UK inflation for market-dominance this Tuesday - not that the CPI reading caused too much movement.
"After initially being disappointed that it didn't build on last month's 2.3 per cent, the pound seemed content enough with the inflation figure.
"(The) inflation data was a bit of a bust in the excitement stakes; it will be interesting to see if (Wednesday's) jobs report is similarly stable or, more specifically, if the gap between inflation and wage growth has widened any further."
Across Europe, Germany's Dax was 0.5 per cent off and the Cac 40 in France slipped 0.1 per cent.
The price of oil dropped 0.6 per cent to $55.62 a barrel, falling from a five-week high on the back of strong US crude inventory levels.
In UK stocks, second tier retailer JD Sports was in the ascendency after a reporting a record set of annual results.
Shares in the FTSE 250 firm jumped more than eight per cent, or 33.5p to 440.1p, as pre-tax profits rose by 81 per cent to £238 million in the year to January 28, while revenue grew 31 per cent to £2.3 billion.
Like-for-like sales expanded 10 per cent over the period and executive chairman Peter Cowgill said, in spite of rising inflation, the firm is well-placed for growth.
The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 Index were Randgold Resources up 350p to 7,580p, Fresnillo up 69p to 1,652p, easyJet up 22p to 1,078p, International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) up 10.5p to 539p.
The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 Index were Royal Bank of Scotland down 4.5p to 234.5p, Hikma Pharmaceuticals down 27p to 1,919p, Standard Chartered down 10p to 726.6p, Carnival down 60p to 4,544p.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here