STOCKS were subdued on both sides of the Atlantic yesterday.

The FTSE 100 Index was in the red throughout the session and eventually finished 0.6 points down at 5396.5 and America’s Dow Jones Industrial saw choppy early trading.

Analyst Michael Hewson said: “Economic data continues to disappoint.”

In London, many banks gave back some of their gains, but the slack was taken up by insurers after an improvement of one per cent for Prudential and Standard Life. Sentiment has been boosted by forecasts of higher first-half earnings from the sector.

Prudential, which is expected to make its peace with investors by increasing its dividend, rose 5.5p to 572p, while Standard Life added 3.1p to 212.3p.

Aviva was also in the spotlight after it signed a five-year agreement with Santander for the distribution of its life protection products from next June.

Shares rose 3.6p to 376.5p.

Energy stocks were closely watched after the price of oil remained above $80 a barrel, triggering a rise of 14p to 1764.5p for Royal Dutch Shell. BP added 2.55p to 415.65p.

In the FTSE 250 Index, shares in Taylor Wimpey rose nine per cent or 2.6p to 31.1p after it reported a return to profit and said net debt had fallen below£1bn to £633.9m. This triggered a rise for Barratt Developments, up 2.3p to 103.5p.

They were joined by automotive and aerospace firm GKN, which climbed 7.5p to 144.1p after it restored its dividend, moved back into the black and said its strong market positions boosted confidence.

There was no such rally for ITV shares, despite reporting a £97m profit. It warned that a continuation of the recent rebound in advertising revenues was far from certain, offsetting boss Adam Crozier’s five-year turnaround plan for the broadcaster.

Shares fell nearly four per cent to 51.6p.