Leading shares in London slipped lower on Thursday, giving up early gains as Wall Street reversed direction despite a series of strong company results and economic data, dealers said.
They said the turnaround reflected profit taking, though the overall tone was positive and much more confident than just a few weeks ago when investors fretted over Europe's debt crisis and the health of its banks.
The benchmark FTSE 100 index closed 0.11 percent lower at 5,313.95 points.
Lloyds Banking Group (LBG) was the most traded stock, seeing 130 million shares switch owners, followed by Vodafone, which saw 103 million units change hands.
Publisher Reed Elsevier was the top blue-chip performer, adding 3.76 percent -- or 20 pence -- to end at 552, followed by telecoms company BT Group, which rose 3.5 percent -- or 4.9 pence -- to end at 144.8.
Consumer packaging company Rexam was the biggest faller, shedding 3.39 percent -- or 11.1 pence -- of its value to end at 316.5 , followed by engineering company Invensys, which closed down 2.69 percent -- or 7.5 pence -- at 271.6.
Meanwhile, the pound fell both against the dollar and the euro.
At 17:20 BST, the pound was trading at 1.560 dollars, fractionally down from 1.562 dollars at the same time on Wednesday, while sterling stood at 1.192 euros, down from 1.201 over the same period.
Copyright 2010  AFP European Edition
