Britain's leading shares were 0.1 percent lower in early Thursday trade, as investors paused after three days of gains, weighed down by retreats from heavyweight miners and banks.
At 0904 GMT, the FTSE 100 index was 4.14 points lower at 5,272.50 after closing 0.6 percent higher on Wednesday.
"The market's had quite a nice bounce, but you can't help thinking that perhaps we've moved up too far, too fast," said David Morrison, market strategist at GFT Global.
"I can't see there is anything out there in the past week that has made the economic situation look any better. Greece is still unresolved, yesterday's U.S. data was neither here nor there, and inflation concerns remain in the UK."
Miners, which have fared well so far this week, fell back as metal prices retreated, under pressure from a strong dollar.
Antofagasta, Fresnillo, Xstrata, Rio Tinto, Kazakhmys, and Vedanta Resources shed 1.2 to 1.8 percent.
Oil majors, however, managed to rally although crude prices were lower, with BG Group, BP, and Royal Dutch Shell up 0.1 to 0.3 percent.
Banks, which have thrived this week following strong results from Barclays on Tuesday, slipped back as well, with Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds Banking Group, and Standard Chartered off 0.2 to 1.0 percent.
HSBC lost 0.1 percent. The global bank is risking shareholder wrath with proposals to increase the basic salaries of top executives by as much as 40 percent, the Daily Express said.
Barclays, however, added 0.6 percent. Abu Dhabi raised its stake in Barclays to 5.2 percent by paying 1.2 billion pounds to exercise warrants it took as part of a controversial fundraising by the UK bank two years ago.
BT Group was the top FTSE 100 faller, down another 2.7 percent to a near seven-month low after credit rating agency Standard & Poor's cut its debt rating for the UK fixed-line operator by one notch to BBB-minus, traders said.
BAE SOARS
Defence contractor BAE Systems was the top FTSE 100 riser, up 3 percent after its full-year results beat market forecasts, with 2009 profit up 15 percent..
Kingfisher was also in demand, up 1.2 percent after Europe's biggest do-it-yourself retailer, said in a fourth-quarter trading update that it expects full-year profit to be slightly ahead of forecasts as cost cutting and business efficiency measures offset a hit from recent bad weather.
Other retailers were lifted by the good news in the sector, with Home Retail, Next and Marks & Spencer adding 0.1 to 0.8 percent.
Otherwise, defensive stocks attracted the most interest on the upside as investors' risk appetite waned again.
Mobile phones firm Vodafone added 0.4 percent, drugs blue-chips GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca both gained 0.3 percent, and British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco took on 0.6 and 0.3 percent, respectively.
Investors were looking to British money supply and public borrowing data for January, due for release at 0930 GMT, for more clues on the outlook for the UK economy.
Britain's Conservatives have increased their lead over the Labour to 9 percentage points but will still not secure an outright majority in an election due by June, an opinion poll showed on Thursday.
