By Atul Prakash and Alistair Smout
LONDON (Reuters) - The FTSE steadied at the close on Tuesday, with a rally in InterContinental Hotels Group and Whitbread (L:WTB) following their well-received results underpinning the market.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 ended 0.1 percent lower at 6,345.13 points, outperforming a 0.4 percent fall in the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300. The FTSE 100 index still trades about 11 percent below its all-time highs hit in April.
InterContinental Hotels Group, one of the world's top hoteliers, surged 6.9 percent after saying it was confident in its outlook for the year due to encouraging trading trends and after posting growth in its third quarter.
"The group has again reported solid progress. Holiday Inn delivered a record level of room openings, key markets such as the U.S., the UK and Germany remained strong, whilst signs of recovery in markets such as Southern Europe and Russia played their part," Keith Bowman, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown (L:HRGV), said.
Whitbread also saw strength in its hotels business which, combined with growth in its Costa Coffee brand, helped its first-half profit rise about 14 percent. Whitbread shares rose 3.3 percent.
Analysts at Numis said the update was reassuring, and that while it would leave its forecasts unchanged, it would move its rating to "add" from "hold" following market weakness that had seen the stock fall around 10 percent since July.
"Today's outlook statement suggests a similar level of growth in H2 which, we believe, may soothe some market fears that the slowdown might be continuing," they said in a note.
Basic resources stocks saw choppy moves, with the UK mining index falling earlier following a drop in metals prices. The sector index was last up 0.2 percent as copper prices recovered to trade in positive territory.
Shares in Glencore (L:GLEN) rose 3 percent after dropping earlier. Rio Tinto (L:RIO), BHP Billiton (L:BLT) and Anglo American (L:AAL) were down between 0.3 to 0.5 percent, but off their intra-day lows.