By Alistair Smout
LONDON (Reuters) - A fall in the shares of publisher Reed Elsevier (L:REL) and Royal Bank of Scotland (L:RBS) held Britain's top equity index in check on Thursday, although the market remained near record highs hit this week.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index (FTSE) was flat at 6,934.63 points towards midday, still close to the record 6,958.89 points reached on Tuesday.
Reed Elsevier (AS:ELSN) fell 4.5 percent, taking the most points off the FTSE.
Reed reported 2014 results broadly in line with forecasts, predicted further growth for 2015 and announced plans for a 500 million pound share buyback.
However, Reed still fell as analysts questioned whether the performance would be enough to sustain its strong stock rally. The shares have climbed more than 100 percent since 2012. Others also noted that the buyback was down on last year's 600 million pound figure.
"When a stock has risen by as much as Reed, there will always be room for disappointment if the figures do not beat forecasts, and traders will be looking to sell out and cash in on the rally," said Central Markets trading analyst Joe Neighbour.
STANCHART OUTPERFORMS RBS
Royal Bank of Scotland fell 3.6 percent, while airline easyJet (L:EZJ) and drinks group Diageo (L:DGE) fell after going ex-dividend, meaning that Diageo and easyJet were trading without the attraction of their latest dividend.
RBS posted a 2014 loss of 3.5 billion pounds and announced plans to shrink its investment banking operations to allow the state-controlled lender to refocus on local lending in Britain.
"RBS is just going to get bashed and bashed and bashed. Although the figures read OK, they've still got some structural issues," said Joe Rundle, head of trading at ETX Capital.
However, rival bank Standard Chartered (L:STAN) - whose operations are mainly in Asia - outperformed RBS to rise 2 percent after it said former JPMorgan (N:JPM) investment bank boss Bill Winters would take over as chief executive to replace embattled boss Peter Sands.
"We are pleased with the announcement of Bill Winters, he is well respected and with management looking to bring back more focus on the core business we think will please investors," said Atif Latif, director of trading at Guardian Stockbrokers.
Outside the blue chips, Britain's biggest pizza delivery company Domino's Pizza (L:DOM) rose 7 percent after it said it had made a strong start to its new financial year and posted a 15.1 percent rise in 2014 profits.