LONDON'S leading shares index ended four days of gains after ongoing talks in Greece over the country's debt mountain kept traders on the sidelines.

The FTSE 100 Index lost hold of earlier gains and closed 1.62 points lower at 5728.55, which hit a five-month high this week, as the Greek government held a third day of talks with creditors over a deal to get them to reduce the value of their Greek bond holdings.

Analysts said the outcome of the talks could determine the path the eurozone debt crisis takes in the coming months, while investors also looked ahead to a meeting of European finance ministers next Monday.

The pound was given a boost by strong UK retail figures and rose against the weakened euro to 1.20 and US dollar at 1.55.

However, the banking sector held onto gains in London as investors cheered earlier results yesterday from Wall Street giants Bank of America and Morgan Stanley. Royal Bank of Scotland added 0.4p at 27.4p and Barclays was ahead 1.3p at 222.7p.

Heavily-weighted Vodafone surged 1.5% after the mobile phone company won a £3.1 billion battle with the Indian tax authorities.

The UK-based company claimed it did not owe tax on the acquisition of Hutchison’s stake in a joint-venture in May 2007 because the transaction happened between two firms outside India.

The biggest Footsie risers were Vedanta Resources up 51p at 1146p, Icap ahead 13.1p at 335.7p, Aviva up 8.9p at 350.9p and Marks and Spencer ahead 7.7p at 334.7p.

The biggest Footsie fallers were Weir Group down 125p at 1954p, Petrofac off 64p at 1440p, BP down 15p at 467.5p and International Power off 8.7p at 319.1p.