London close: Stocks end slightly higher despite mixed Eurozone news

Mixed newsflow from the Eurozone kept financial markets busy on Thursday, though a late rally pushed UK stocks into positive territory by the close.London's FTSE 100 finished the day up just 0.1% at 6,866, but had bounced strongly after hitting an intraday low of 6,808.19.The European Central Bank (ECB) said on Wednesday that it will lift the waiver on using Greek government bonds as collateral for lending to its banks. The ECB's move came as the newly-elected Greek government seeks to ease the terms of its €240bn bailout with its creditors. Investors were also focusing on the news that Denmark's central bank slashed interest rates for the fourth time in three weeks in an attempt to defend the krone's currency ceiling against the struggling euro.Meanwhile, the European Commission raised its growth forecasts for the Eurozone for 2015 and 2016 due to the effect of lower oil prices a weaker euro.In other news, the Bank of England announced at noon that it had kept the Bank Rate at the record-low level of 0.5% and its asset purchases programme at £375bn, as expected by the market.Economic data was also keeping investors busy on Thursday; figures showed a better-than-expected jump in German factory orders, a contraction in Eurozone like-for-like retail sales, an easing in the growth rate of UK new car registrations, a smaller-than-forecast rise in US jobless claims and an unexpected widening in the US trade deficit.M&A lifts BT and RexamBT surged after confirming reports it has settled on terms of its acquisition of EE from Deutsche Telekom and Orange, saying it will be spending £12.5bn on the UK mobile network. Rexam's share price surged over 20% after the beverage can maker confirmed rumours that it has been approached by Ball Corporation. Ball Corporation has proposed a acquisition which values Rexam at 610p per share, or £4.3bn.Smith & Nephew rose after seeing a 6% increase in annual revenue, while catering company Compass advanced as organic revenue grew more than expected in its first quarter.Heading the other way was Astrazeneca after earnings per share fell more than expected in the fourth quarter, dragging the full-year number short of the market's target.Vodafone dialed in a smaller-than-expected 0.4% decline in organic service revenues in the third quarter thanks to a steady recovery in Europe and a return to growth in the UK, though investors were largely underwhelmed.Easyjet fell after saying that passenger numbers were flat at the budget airline in January, while planes were not as full as they were a year earlier. The carrier flew just over 4.02m customers last month, representing no change from January 2014. Market MoverstechMARK 3,092.32 +0.30%FTSE 100 6,865.93 +0.09%FTSE 250 16,694.99 +0.74%FTSE 100 - RisersTullow Oil (TLW) 418.10p +5.61%BT Group (BT.A) 442.00p +4.49%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,000.00p +3.52%Aggreko (AGK) 1,638.00p +2.63%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 1,198.00p +2.57%BG Group (BG.) 954.80p +2.45%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,852.00p +2.32%Intertek Group (ITRK) 2,452.00p +2.25%Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 918.00p +2.06%GKN (GKN) 382.60p +2.00%FTSE 100 - FallersAstraZeneca (AZN) 4,529.00p -3.39%easyJet (EZJ) 1,726.00p -2.92%Vodafone Group (VOD) 230.90p -2.37%BAE Systems (BA.) 516.50p -2.09%ITV (ITV) 226.00p -1.99%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 3,021.00p -1.92%CRH (CRH) 1,747.00p -1.80%Wolseley (WOS) 3,820.00p -1.75%Unilever (ULVR) 2,835.00p -1.70%St James's Place (STJ) 877.00p -1.46%FTSE 250 - RisersRexam (REX) 538.00p +20.20%Lonmin (LMI) 188.30p +9.29%Hunting (HTG) 493.00p +8.07%Vedanta Resources (VED) 474.20p +5.57%Premier Oil (PMO) 168.70p +4.72%Ophir Energy (OPHR) 152.00p +4.54%Serco Group (SRP) 179.40p +4.48%Ted Baker (TED) 2,423.00p +4.30%Wood Group (John) (WG.) 619.00p +3.86%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 770.50p +3.77%FTSE 250 - FallersAfren (AFR) 9.64p -13.11%Premier Farnell (PFL) 158.10p -6.67%Ocado Group (OCDO) 409.30p -5.10%Victrex plc (VCT) 2,038.00p -2.58%Beazley (BEZ) 293.90p -2.42%Man Group (EMG) 175.50p -2.34%Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 577.50p -2.12%Telecity Group (TCY) 865.00p -2.09%Rank Group (RNK) 182.00p -1.89%ICAP (IAP) 463.40p -1.68%