Vodafone, miners push FTSE 100 higher

LONDON (MarketWatch) � U.K. stocks posted a flat finish Thursday, giving up earlier gains as European equities came under pressure amid renewed euro-zone sovereign debt worries.

Banks fell while Vodafone Group PLC gained ground and GlaxoSmithKline PLC inched higher after Human Genome Sciences rejected its takeover offer.

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The FTSE 100 index UK:UKX ended down 0.74 point, or less than 0.1%, at 5,744.55, after posting a 0.4% loss on Wednesday.

Bank shares saw renewed pressure, with Lloyds Banking Group PLC UK:LLOY falling 2.3%, Barclays PLC UK:BARC off 0.9% and Royal Bank of Scotland Group UK:RBS dropping 2.4%.�

Hargreaves Lansdown PLC UK:HL was the top advancer in the index, jumping 5.6% after the investment firm reported assets under administration increased by 2.6 billion pounds ($4.2 billion) for the quarter ending March 31 to a record �26 billion.

European equities seesawed between gains and losses through most of the session on the back of debt auctions in Spain and jobs and manufacturing data from the U.S., but headed lower into the close, led by Spain.

Spain sold �2.54 billion of 2- and 10-year bonds, and saw borrowing costs rise for both maturities, but the auction saw strong demand. Markets were initially soothed by the results, but later turned lower. Read about Spain�s auction.

In the U.S., 386,000 Americans filed for jobless claims last week, missing analysts� expectations of a drop to 374,000. U.S. jobless claims total 386,000 in latest week

Separately, the Philadelphia Federal Reserve�s index for manufacturing activity showed a larger-than-expected decline in April.

In the U.K., heavyweight Vodafone UK:VOD VOD climbed 1.4%. Telecommunications firm Cable & Wireless Worldwide PLC confirmed�late Wednesday it remains in talks with Vodafone about a potential takeover, after Tata Communications Ltd. TCL ending bidding discussions.

Cable & Wireless shares fell more than 8%.

GlaxoSmithKline GSK UK:GSK rose 0.9% after U.S. biotech firm Human Genome Sciences Inc. said it had received and rejected an unsolicited acquisition offer from the drug maker�valued at $13 a share in cash.

In the mining sector, most companies trimmed gains but remained in positive territory as metals prices rose. Kazakhmys PLC UK:KAZ added 0.8% and Evraz PLC UK:EVR advanced 0.7%.

Anglo American PLC UK:AAL AAUKY ended 0.2% lower, however. Shares had risen in earlier action after it said iron-ore production jumped 17% to 11.7 million tons in the first quarter mainly due to the ramp-up of production from the Kolomela mine and a continued improvement in performance at Amapa.

Engineering group IMI PLC UK:IMI gained 1.5%, after Jefferies lifted the stock to buy from hold.