Mining shares depress FTSE 100

(Close): The FTSE 100 recovered from early losses to close 9 points higher.

Miners were the session's big losers. Randgold Resources tumbled 6%, Fresnillo fell 4.5% and Anglo American closed 2.7% lower.

Wealth management group St James's Place jumped 3.6% after strong results.

Despite reporting an increase in second quarter profits, shares in BT Group fell 2% as investors worried it could get drawn into a price war.

Second quarter profits rose 13% to £563m, with revenues from BT's consumer business up 7%.

BT has taken on BSkyB by winning rights to Premier League matches, but there are concerns over the impact of increasing competition between the two.

Barclays rose 0.9% after it reported pre-tax profits of £3.72bn for the first nine months of the year, up from £2.85bn a year earlier.

The bank has also set aside £500m to cover the potential costs of an investigation into currency trading. Barclays is among several banks being probed over alleged rigging of currency markets.

In the FTSE 250, transport group National Express rose 4.7% after it said pre-tax profits in the third quarter were nearly 15% higher than a year earlier.

On the currency markets, the pound recovered from early losses to close a touch higher against the dollar at 1.60250.

Against the euro, the pound rose 0.2% to €1.2701.