Britain's top share index shed 0.3 percent in early trade on Thursday, weighed on by some weakness in banks and miners and with investors cautious ahead of the UK interest rate decision due at 1200 GMT and Friday's U.S. jobs report.
At 0909 GMT the FTSE 100 index was down 14.33 points at 5,515.65, slipping back after closing 7.54 points, or 0.1 percent higher on Wednesday at a fresh 16-month high.
"Investors are obviously awaiting the BoE news and Friday's non-farm payrolls, but there is not a lot else going on," said David Morrison, market strategist at GFT Global.
"The bottom line is we seem to be stuck at the moment, with any likely good news from the data seen priced in, while any bad news could be perceived as de-railing the stock market rally."
Banks were the main sector fallers, retreating ahead of the Bank of England's announcement although no change is expected to UK interest rates, which are at a record low of 0.5 percent, or to the central bank's 200 billion-pound quantitative easing (QE) programme.
Negative comment from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods weighed, with the broker cutting its rating on the European banking sector to "neutral", citing jitters about central bank QE exit strategies and restrictive banking regulation proposals.
Royal Bank of Scotland, a big gainer over the past few sessions, shed 2.3 percent, while Standard Chartered, Barclays, Lloyds Banking, and HSBC lost 0.4 to 2.4 percent.
Heavyweight miners also retreated following good gains on Wednesday as copper prices fell back after touching a 16 month peak, as investors fretted over possible tighter monetary policy in China, the world's top metals consumer. Xstrata, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, and Kazakhys fell 0.8 to 1.5 percent, while Eurasian Natural Resources lost 2.1 percent impacted a downgrade in rating by Cazenove to "underperform" in a sector review.
Vedanta Resources lost 0.5 percent in spite of Cazenove upgrading its rating to "outperform".
DRUGS, FOOD WANTED
Pharma stocks added the most underlying strength to the blue chip index thanks in part to their defensive characteristics.
AstraZeneca stood out, up 1.1 percent after the firm settled a U.S. patent row over Nexium with Israel's Teva Pharmaceuticals , protecting the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker's top-selling heartburn drug from immediate generic competition.
Peer GlaxoSmithKline gained 0.7 percent.
Food retailers were in demand after J Sainsbury delivered a better than expected third-quarter trading update.
Britain's No. 3 grocer beat third-quarter sales growth forecasts as rising customer numbers and strong sales of non-food ranges offset lower food price inflation.
Peers Tesco and WM Morrison got a boost from the good sector news with gains of 1.0 and 0.8 percent respectively.
Tobacco issues were higher too, led by British American Tobacco, up 0.5 percent as Nomura rised its rating to "buy" from "reduce" and JP Morgan upped its target price.
Plumbing supplies group Wolseley was the top FTSE 100 riser, exyending Wednesday's advance with a further 2.2 percent rise boosted by an UBS upgrade to "buy" from "neutral".
Broker changes also had an impact on the second line.
Broadcaster ITV and newspapers publisher Trinity Mirror gained 3.4 and 2.3 percent, respectively, after Goldman Sachs upped its rating for both in a European media sector review.
But sugar group Tate & Lyle shed 6.2 percent, topping the FTSE 250 fallers list after Credit Suisse cut its rating to "neutral" from "outperform".
Once the UK rate decision is out of the way, investors will refocus on the December U.S. jobs report.
No significant UK economic data is scheduled for Thursday and the only important U.S. data set for release later in the session will be the latest weekly jobless claims data.
