London shares made modest gains in early trading as Greece's backing of a second set of economic reforms cheered dealers.
The FTSE 100 Index climbed 10.13 points to 6677 after the parliament in Athens voted to support measures specified by the country's international creditors.
News of the approval of the reforms, which was necessary to complete talks about a third bailout, helped traders to shrug off a commodities rout.
But Mike van Dulken at Accendo Markets said: "While the vote sailed through thanks to opposition support, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras suffered persistent dissent meaning snap elections are a real possibility."
US markets closed in the red as disappointing corporate results from Apple and Microsoft weighed along with more commodity price declines due to a supply glut and demand concerns.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 36 points to 5,172; the S&P 500 got off relatively lightly, shedding five points at 2,114, while the Dow Jones gave up 68 points at 17,851.
On the economic front, UK retail sales figures for June were expected to be higher than a month earlier, although the scale of any increase could be key to sentiment.
As on most Thursdays, the corporate news flow in the UK was heavy, with the likes of Unilever, Reed Elsevier, Shire, Kingfisher, SABMiller and SSE all reporting.
BP (LON:BP.) leaked 3.85p to 402.75p as West Texas Intermediate crude slipped below US$50 a barrel. Brent was also down more than 1% at around US$56. Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) reversed a penny to 1799.5p.
Miners recovered after Wednesday's downturn, with Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) advancing 7p to 2509.5p, BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) adding 3.5p at 1183.5p and Anglo American (LON:AAL) up 9.4p at 822.9p.
Pot Noodle and Marmite maker Unilever (LON:ULVR) was 61p tastier at 2920p on news of higher first half turnover and sales in tough markets.
Brewer SABMiller (LON:SAB) dropped 22.5p to 3417p as lower lager demand offset fizzing sales of soft drinks.
B&Q owner Kingfisher (LON:KGF) ticked up 4.5p to 371.5p as it reported a summer sales boost.