Source: Sharecast
The FTSE 100 closed unchanged at 9,760.06, while sterling was 0.3% lower versus the dollar at 1.3154.
A weaker pound tends to benefit the top-flight index as around 70% of its constituents derive their earnings from abroad.
Chris Beauchamp, chief market analyst at IG, said: "A disappointing morning for the FTSE 100 was rescued later in the session, as sterling took another lurch lower against the dollar to its lowest level since April.
"This combined with renewed strength for gold, which shrugged off the dollar’s revival to push back above $4000. So far this FTSE 100 rally appears impervious to any selling. Whether that survives more tech earnings tonight is another matter."
Stocks had spent most of the day firmly in the red as a more hawkish tone from US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell outweighed any potential cheer over a breakthrough in Sino-US trade relations.
On Wednesday, the Fed cut interest rates by 25 basis points as widely expected, and announced the end of quantitative tightening. However, Powell dented the mood after he said a further reduction of the policy rate at the December meeting was "not a foregone conclusion".
Danske Bank said: "This led to a repricing of front-end rate expectations, with the implied probability of a December cut declining from above 90% to around 60%."
It added: "Ahead of the meeting, we expected Powell to avoid pre-committing to a December rate cut, but his clear pushback against the market pricing was more hawkish than even we anticipated.
"Powell emphasised that 'another cut in December is far from assured' amid the committee's 'strongly differing views' about the future, and that 'there is a growing chorus of feeling we should maybe wait a cycle'. He highlighted that despite the shutdown, available data does not signal significant further cooling in labour markets."
On the trade front, the US and China agreed a one-year truce that pauses some of the most contentious measures in their economic stand-off.
Trump said the two sides had reached an "amazing" understanding that would see the US scale back some tariffs on Chinese imports and China suspend planned export controls on rare earth minerals.
He described the talks as a "great success" and said a formal deal would be signed "pretty soon".
Xi struck a more cautious tone, with Chinese state media saying only that both sides had reached a "consensus" on resolving major trade issues and should avoid a "vicious cycle of retaliation".
Investors were also mulling the latest policy announcement from the European Central Bank, which kept interest rates on hold at 2%, as widely expected.
In equity markets, Standard Chartered rose after saying it expects income for the year to be towards the upper end of its 5% to 7% growth range after reporting a rise in third-quarter earnings driven by its wealth division.
Haleon gained after posting better-than-expected third-quarter revenue growth, while Computacenter advanced as it said it was "comfortably ahead" of the prior year’s trading following a strong performance in the third quarter.
Oil giant Shell nudged higher as it reported better-than-expected profits for the third quarter despite a weak oil price and unveiled a £350m share buyback.
On the downside, WPP tumbled as it warned on profits again due to a slump in revenue and said it had launched a strategic review, with new boss Cindy Rose describing the advertising firm's performance as "unacceptable".
Rathbones was also under the cosh after Jefferies initiated coverage of the stock at ‘underperform’.
JD Sports and Whitbread both fell as they traded without entitlement to the dividend.
