Royal Bank of Scotland and insurance giant Admiral suffered losses as third-quarter updates spooked investors.

Part-nationalised RBS dropped 2% after revealing another £450 million in charges for payment protection insurance mis-selling, while Admiral slumped 5% on fears over slowing revenues.

The wider FTSE 100 Index struggled for direction, closing 6.6 points higher at 5868.6, as Wall Street gave a mixed response to figures showing the world's biggest economy added a far better-than-expected 171,000 jobs last month.

America's Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped into the red in early trading as lower oil prices hit the US market.

But the cheery US jobs news helped the dollar strengthen, which left the pound lower at 1.60 dollars. Sterling rose to just under 1.25 euros on mounting optimism over the UK recovery.

Among stocks, RBS was in sharp focus as the banking giant said its additional charges contributed to a bottom-line loss of £1.3 billion in the third quarter. Shares were initially higher amid further signs of underlying progress, with profits from its core business up 67% year-on-year to £1.6 billion.

But the extra charges – and with the group still being the subject of an investigation into the industry's Libor scandal – unnerved investors and sent shares down 5.9p to 281.3p.

Car insurer Admiral was also seeing hefty share losses, down 61p to 1081p, after its latest trading update fuelled fears that revenues growth is slowing.

Elsewhere, Direct Line Insurance Group – which floated on the stock market last month – fell 3.8p to 195.3p despite reporting a 3% rise in profits from ongoing operations in the nine months to September 30.

Supermarket Morrisons was also in the red ahead of its third quarter update next week as analysts expect figures to reveal sales declines widening to 2% as it loses out amid intense competition in the sector. Shares in the UK's fourth biggest grocery chain fell 3.7p to 263.8p.

Drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline endured another painful session after a disappointing trading update this week, which saw it warn that price cuts in Europe were hitting sales. With a broker downgrade adding to its woes, it fell 2% or 26p to 1361.5p.

In the second tier, Currys and PC World parent Dixons Retail continued to benefit from yesterday's news that Comet is to be placed into administration.

Dixons added another 11%, or 2.5p to 25.8p, after a 14% rise in the previous session on hopes that it will pick up business from the demise of its rival.