Britain's leading share index was flat in early trade on Wednesday as weakness in oil majors and miners offset gains in banks, with investors pausing for breath after hefty gains over the previous five sessions.
By 0823 GMT the FTSE was down 0.1 percent, or 6.47 points at 4,910.33 after hitting a near 11-month closing high at 4,916.80 on Tuesday helped by reassuring economic data from the United States.
The blue-chip index has gained 6.7 percent so far this month and is up 11 percent this year after rebounding 42 percent from an all-time low in March.
"It certainly looks like momentum is still with the bulls. The important thing to take from recent movements in the FTSE is that any falls that we have seen haven't followed through," said Angus Campbell, head of sales at Capital Spreads.
Oil majors were under pressure as crude prices inched above $72 a barrel after sliding 3 percent from 10-month highs.
BG Group, BP and Royal Dutch Shell fell 1.0-1.5 percent.
Tullow Oil sank 3.2 percent, after the British-based oil explorer reported an 83 percent drop in first-half profit on lower crude prices and production.
Miners were lower, with Fresnillo, BHP Billiton, Kazakhmys and Xstrata losing 0.3-2.8 percent.
Antofagasta fell 1.4 percent as the Chilean copper miner posted lower-than-expected first-half earnings and said copper prices were likely to remain volatile in the second half.
Rio Tinto said it was likely to open a mine in Serbia in five or six years to exploit jadarite, a mineral used to produce mobile phone batteries. Its stock fell 0.9 percent.
WPP, the world's largest advertising group by revenue, fell 3.9 percent, as the company posted an 8.3 percent drop in first half like-for-like sales, but said it expected a marked improvement in second-half profitability
Meanwhile, ex-dividend factors clipped 0.17 point off the FTSE 100 index, with Eurasian Natural Resources, Fresnillo and InterContinental Hotels losing their dividend attractions on Wednesday.
BANKS GAIN
Banks were in positive territory, led by a 5.8 percent gain in Royal Bank of Scotland.
The lender is poised to slash retirement benefits for staff in an attempt to save 1 million pounds in annual costs and cut future liabilities by 500 million pounds.
Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and Standard Chartered rose 0.6-3.3 percent while HSBC was flat.
Among individual gainers, British support services group Serco climbed 4.4 percent as it beat market expectations for first-half profit and said it was confident of meeting full year guidance after a strong start to the second half.
With no British economic data expected on Wednesday, investors were focused on July U.S. durable good numbers, due at 1230 GMT, when an increase of 3.2 percent is expected after a 2.2 percent decline in June.
July U.S. new home sales will be released at 1400 GMT, with 0.39 million sales expected, up marginally from 0.384 million in June.
