FTSE 100 slips, struggles to hit new highs

The FTSE 100 was down by 0.2%, or 13.90 points lower, at 6,314.36 points by 0813 GMT, in what is expected to be a quiet session with little macro economic and corporate data for investors to chew on and the U.S. equity market closed for the President's day holiday.

Analysts at Nomura warned in a note that sentiment towards global equity markets had become even more extended last week with its systematic mutual flow indicator reaching two standard deviations for the first time since May 2006.

"We would regard such extreme bullish levels of sentiment to act as a contrarian signal of equity market weakness over a short-term horizon," it wrote.