The London market closed ahead today as investors took the loss of France's gold-plated AAA credit rating and speculation over Greece's future in the eurozone in their stride.
The downgrade of France and several other countries by Standard & Poor's came as little surprise to markets, while rival agency Moodys helped sentiment by saying it will maintain the countrys top-tier rating for the timebeing.
The FTSE 100 Index closed 20.8 points higher at 5657.4, while Germany's Dax was more than 1% ahead and the Cac-40 in Paris was 0.9% up.
There was no direction from the US, where the market was closed for Martin Luther King day.The steady performance came despite fresh speculation that Greece is on the brink of leaving the single currency because it will not have enough funds for a £12bn bond that has to be repaid on March 20.
Meanwhile, banks deposited a record £493.3bn at the European Central Bank on Friday night in a sign the eurozone banks remain concerned over the government debt crisis.The overnight figures released exceed the previous record of £490bn deposited on Thursday.
The pound was higher at 1.20 against the euro following Friday's downgrade, while sterling also rose against the US dollar at 1.53.
The biggest Footsie risers were GKN up 6.4p at 202.7p, Pearson ahead 33p at 1250p, Hargreaves Lansdown up 11.9p at 441.4p and Meggitt ahead 6.2p at 371.1p.
The biggest Footsie fallers were Carnival down 370p at 1878p, Lloyds Banking Group off 0.04p at 29.5p, Cairn Energy down 0.8p at 291.4p and BSkyB off 9.5p at 683.5p.
