London's FTSE 250 index gained on Tuesday, helped by Royal Mail and real estate stocks, while Amigo Holdings was on track for its worst day on record after a UK court rejected its proposed redress scheme, Reuters reports.
The domestically focussed mid-cap FTSE 250 index edged up by 0.3 percent. Royal Mail climbed by 5.9 p ercent to the top of the index after Peel Hunt upgraded the stock to "buy" from "hold.''
Real estate stocks and real estate investment trusts also jumped, providing the biggest boost to the index.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index edged 0.1 percent lower as a stronger pound weighed on large dollar-earning consumer staples companies including British American Tobacco, Diageo and Imperial Brands.
However, losses on the index were limited by industrial software company Aveva, which gained by 5 percent after saying it was confident about the year ahead as the business environment had improved in most of its major markets.
After rising by 9.1 percent in the first four months of this year on recovery optimism, the FTSE 100 has traded in a tight range in the past few sessions on concerns that a resurgence of infections across parts of Asia might delay a global economic recovery.
Subprime lender Amigo tumbled by 51.7 percent after a court refused to sanction a proposed rescue plan to manage its large backlog of redress claims.
