Weakness in banks and commodity stocks, pressured by lower metal and crude prices, dragged Britain's top share index lower early on Tuesday as investors booked profits after a four-day winning streak.
By 0846 GMT the FTSE 100 index was 33.47 points lower at 5,349.20 as investors paused for breath after the index hit a 14-month closing high the previous session.
But many investors remained relatively upbeat about prospects for the equity market.
"The bigger picture is that equity markets are up, we saw a rise yesterday even though data is not particularly strong, and while we are lower today we're up sharply this month," said Steven Bell, director at hedge fund GLC.
The index is up 20.7 percent this year and has surged 55 percent from a six-year low in March.
Miners were pressured as metal prices retreated. Rio Tinto, Xstrata, Lonmin, Anglo American, Kazakhmys and Fresnillo fell 0.4-3.2 percent.
Energy stocks were hit by lower crude prices. BG Group, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and Tullow Oil fell 0.4-1.2 percent.
Banks were also weaker as investor appetite for risk diminished slightly.
Barclays, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Lloyds Banking Group fell 0.6-1.4 percent.
Among individual issues, testing equipment firm Intertek slid 4.3 percent after Seymour Pierce cut its rating to "outperform" from "buy" after it posted total revenue growth of 28 percent for the 10 months to October 31.
DEFENSIVES STRONG
As risk appetite waned defensively perceived stocks found some support.
Food producer Unilever gained 0.5 percent, while Centrica and Severn Trent led utilities higher, up 0.6 percent each, with supermarkets also high on traders' wanted lists with Wm Morrison Supermarkets and Tesco rising 1.1 and 0.5 percent respectively.
Cable & Wireless was the sharpest gainer, up 2.4 percent, after the telecoms group said it planned to raise around 200 million pounds via the bond market as part of its refinancing to ensure the demerger of its two units by April next year.
Investors will eye monthly UK inflation figures, due at 0930 GMT. Consumer price inflation is seen by analysts rising to 1.5 percent year on year in October, up from 1.1 percent in the year to September.
Later, U.S. figures on producer price inflation and industrial production will attract attention.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Monday that regulatory reform has to address the too-big-to-fail issue and it must be possible for financial firms to fail without dragging the broader system with them.
BoE policymaker Andrew Sentance said on Monday that Britain's economy is moving towards recovery and the Bank of England's latest forecasts show the risk of keeping monetary policy too loose for too long.
