Barclays shares fell into the red after the bank revealed another £700 million hit from the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI).

The banking giant said it had now set aside £2 billion to cover compensation claims for PPI, sending shares down 2% or 3.7p to 240.7p.

The wider FTSE-100 Index held on to recent gains, up 6.1 points at 5917.1, as optimism caused by better-than-expected figures from the Chinese economy was offset by more eurozone caution.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wall Street also made a cautious start to trading following disappointing results from American Express and downbeat unemployment benefit claims data.

In Europe, the latest summit meeting of EU leaders in Brussels was closely watched for updates on the prospects of a bailout for Spain and whether Greece will secure its next slice of support.

Stronger-than-forecast UK retail sales helped the pound rise against a stronger euro, at 1.23 euros, while sterling held firm at 1.61 US dollars.

Miners were helped by figures from the Chinese economy showing signs that the worst of the country's economic slowdown may be over, with Kazakhmys up 3% or 20.5p to 780.5p and Evraz 6.3p higher at 258.9p.

BP shares rose 3.7p to 452.1p amid expectations that Rosneft will seize control of the TNK-BP joint venture in a move which would result in the UK company taking a stake of between 10% and 20% in the Kremlin-backed energy company.

Rosneft would become the world's biggest publicly traded oil company, with daily crude output of more than three million barrels. Elsewhere, shares in Mothercare jumped 24.75p to 257.25p after the retailer took a big step in its recovery by announcing a return to underlying sales growth, compared with a 6.7% slump in the previous quarter.

Transport company Go-Ahead was 6% higher after it announced plans to grow bus profits to £100m by 2015/16, from £70m currently.

The group, which is the joint venture operator of Southern and Southeastern, added recent trading has been in line with hopes, prompting its shares to rise 75p to 1365p.

Cash-and-carry group Booker was also doing well in the FTSE 250 Index after it reported a 13% rise in half-year pre-tax profits to £40.8m, helped by strong sales to the catering sector.

Shares have risen sharply this year and were up by another 6.25p to 100.6p today, a gain of 7%.