Britain's top share index slipped in mid-session trade on Tuesday, as miners and energy stocks led the market lower.
By 1027 GMT, the FTSE 100 was down 7.21 points, or 0.2 percent, at 4578.92, after closing up 9.52 points on Monday at 4,586.13, hitting its highest closing level since Jan. 5.
The index has risen 11 percent over the past two weeks on reassuring U.S. corporate earnings results, and is up over 32 percent since hitting a six-year trough in March.
"As the market stands there has been a lightening up on the long positions particularly the miners — although this is seen as a pause not an opt out strategy," says Manus Cranny, senior market commentator at MF Global Spreads.
Antofagasta, Kazakhmys, Eurasian Natural Resources, Lonmin and Rio Tinto dropped between 1.5 and 3 percent.
Xstrata fell 5.7 percent despite posting an 11 percent rise in first-half production of coal, while copper output added 1 percent.
"In a way Xstrata's production, whilst positive, is a sideline as it continues to stalk Anglo American which publishes results on Friday," says Evolution Securities, which repeats its "reduce" rating on valuation grounds.
Randgold Resources fell 3 percent after the gold miner announced a share offering to fund the development of its Gounkoto and Massawa projects in Senegal and Mali as it reported a rise in quarter-on-quarter profits and production.
BP was 1.4 percent down as traders reversed early gains following slightly mixed second-quarter results.
Collins Stewart says operational recovery has been largely discounted with the stock now just 6 percent off 12-month highs in sterling terms.
The rest of energy sector gained as investors cheered as crude held above $68 a barrel.
BG Group which reports its second-quarter results on Wednesday, gained 0.3 percent, with Exane BNP Paribas upgrading the company to "outperform" from "neutral" ahead of the numbers.
Royal Dutch Shell, up 0.2 percent, were also upgraded to "outperform", from "underperform", by Exane BNP Paribas, ahead of results on Thursday.
Tullow Oil and Cairn Energy were 0.2 percent and 0.7 percent higher respectively.
Mobile heavyweight Vodafone fell 0.2 percent. The mobile phone operator holds its annual general meeting on Tuesday.
DEFENSIVES RISE
Defensive pharmaceutical stocks led the blue chip risers as corporate news and continuing swine flu fears drove shares higher.
GlaxoSmithKilne, up 1.4 percent, struck a deal to commercialise Amgen's experimental osteoporosis drug denosumab in Europe and emerging markets.
Shire rose 0.8 percent after it said it was still confident of launching its hyperactivity drug Intuniv despite approval being delayed by U.S. regulators.
AstraZeneca was 1.4 percent higher.
Tobacco also gained with British American Tobacco up 0.9 percent.
Financial software firm Sage rises 5.3 percent following in-line results, which prompts an upgrade by Evolution Securities to "neutral" from "sell",
On the economic front, U.S. July consumer confidence will be a focus this afternoon.
