FTSE 100 struggles for direction, Bridgepoint lifts mid-cap index

London's FTSE 100 struggled for direction on Friday as gains in consumer staples and financial stocks countered losses in energy shares, while private equity firm Bridgepoint Group helped mid-caps advance.

London's FTSE 100 struggled for direction on Friday as gains in consumer staples and financial stocks countered losses in energy shares, while private equity firm Bridgepoint Group helped mid-caps advance. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index was flat, with oil majors BP Plc and Shell Plc shedding 1.5% and 1.1%, respectively, as oil prices fell further ahead of a meeting of consumer nations to discuss a new release of emergency oil reserves.

Shares of Reckitt Benckiser Group, Dove soap maker Unilever and British American Tobacco rose more than 1% each to provide the biggest boost to the index. The domestically focussed mid-cap FTSE 250 index advanced 0.4%, with Bridgepoint Group gaining 3.8% after Citigroup upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral".

Barclays Plc added 1.3% after a proposed multi-billion pound claim brought by thousands of asset managers, pension funds and financial institutions against major banks over alleged foreign exchange rigging was blocked by a London court.