Big cap miners erased losses yesterday but could not stop Footsie closing lower on the day.
FTSE100 finished over 25 points lower, or 0.36%, to 6,928 as miners made up the top three gainers despite uncertainty after the Chinese manufacturing data.
Anglo American (LON:AAL) added 4.54%, while Antofagasta (LON:ANTO) was up 3.16%. Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) gained 2.38% to 2,902p.
Britain's blue chips went lower despite better than expected data.
British mortgage approvals jumped and optimism among construction firms hit a nine-year high in May.
Meanwhile, the Markit/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index registered 55.9 in May, beating forecasts and far above the growth-indicating 50 mark.
However, the Greece story continued to weigh, and the likelihood that Greece will indeed default on its next International Monetary Fund (IMF) payment is worrying investors with US$334mln due by Friday.
Crisis talks held by Eurozone ministers last night including European Central Bank president Mario Draghi and German chancellor Angela Merkel.
Meanwhile, Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister, sent a new proposal for them to mull over… this morning.
David Madden, at spreadbetters IG Index, colourfully put it: "When, at last, the history of the Greek crisis is finally written, historians will wonder how anyone kept their sanity during the endless back-and-forth headline battles that have characterised each twist and turn.
"Today has been a repeat of previous sessions, with deal and denial following swiftly upon each other’s heels.
On the falling front, tobacco firms were trailing. British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) lost 2.41% after details of a Canadian court ruling that awarded more than C$15bn in damages to Quebec smokers were revealed.
The judgement follows a ten year legal challenge against British American Tobacco's Canadian subsidiary, Imperial Tobacco Canada as well as two others.
The company said there are “strong legal grounds with which to challenge the judgement”. Imperial Tobacco (LON:IMT) shares were top losers, the firm shedding 2.9% to 3,210p.
Meanwhile, Tesco (LON:TSCO) took a knock as a report from Kantar Worldpanel showed that after an improved start to the year Tesco sales decreased by 1.12% with its market share falling by 0.4 percentage points to 28.6% in the 12 weeks to 24 May.
On a more positive note, Morrisons (LON:MRW) was the only one of the big four supermarkets to experience growth in the period.
It eked out a 0.1% growth in sales while its market share remained constant at 10.9%. Shares added 1.83% to 172.5p.
Meanwhile, plumbers' merchant Wolseley (LON:WOS) added 2.02% to 4,100p as it recorded a 16.6% rise in third quarter revenue.
Profits also rose by 20% and the figures sent shares 2% higher to 4,100p.
In small caps, Redx Pharma (LON:REDX) has unveiled a potential breakthrough in the fight against antibiotic resistant infections.
This morning it said it had reached the pre-clinical development phase with a potential combatant for MRSA. Shares jumped 15.61% to 118.5p.
On the other side of the coin, SeaEnergy (LON:SEA) sank as it warned the weakness of the oil price had affected its North Sea operation. Shares dropped around 27% to 15.125p.
Other notable risers were Blur Group (LON:BLUR), up 11.43% to 39p and Magnolia Petroleum (LON:MAGP), which gained 7.14% to 0.75p.
It told investors it will be participating in 16 new wells in proven US oil and gas projects.
Chief operating officer Rita Whittington said the wells will add to Magnolia’s daily production volumes and will continue the growth of reserves, which had increased to almost 1mln barrels of oil and 2.9bln cubic feet of gas by January 2015 (from 46,000 and 198mln cubic feet in October 2011).