The blue-chip index briefly rose above its 52-week closing value high today but could not sustain its momentum.



Dragged down by a soft opening on Wall Street, the Footsie closed at 5,962, down 26 on the day and four points below its 52-week high.



A Greek ratings upgrade and some uplifting German economic data put investors in a good mood in the morning session.



Standard & Poor’s, the debt ratings agency, has upgraded its rating for Greece’s sovereign debt from 'selective default' to 'B-'.



In Germany, the IFO institute’s German business climate index rose to 102.4 in December from 101.4 in November. Economists had expected a reading of 101.4.



At the company level, CRH ( ) was the top climber, up 3.7% after broker Liberum suggested the building materials firm could snap up plumbers’ merchant ( ) and after Deutsche Bank upgraded the stock to ‘buy’. , meanwhile, rose 3.1%.



Banks were boosted by , which upgraded the sector to ‘benchmark’ from ‘underweight’, lifting RBS ( ) 4.2%, Lloyds ( ) 4.3% and ( ) 3.2%.



The same broker passed judgement on the insurance sector, raising its rating from ‘benchmark’ to ‘overweight’, while its rating for tobaccos went from ‘benchmark’ to ‘underweight’, clobbering ( ) and IMPS ( ) in the process.



Distribution specialist ( ) was the top faller on the Footsie by some distance, shedding 4.6% on the day it announced two new acquisitions and said spending would increase.



Vesuvius (LON:VSVS), the company formerly known as Cookson, virtually halved at the demerger of its performance materials division to Alent became effective.



Outside the top tier, punters bet on ( ), whose shares shot up 4.8% after brokers suggested taking a punt on the bookmaker.



As for small caps, ( ) reigned close to the summit of AIM stocks after hailing a positive bankable feasibility study at its Tschudi copper project in Namibia.



Shares shot up 21% as it also revealed it has secured a debt funding package to the tune of US$88mln.



( ), however, was the day’s biggest riser, up a staggering 219% after trading in its shares resumed in Hong Kong following a police investigation into its activities.



The company, which specialises in surveillance and security technology, said as far as it knew, neither RCG nor its directors have been implicated in the inquiry.



Tracking it north on AIM were ( ), up 29%, and Shaft Sinkers ( ), which climbed 10%.