Top flight shares continued their roller-coaster ride on Wednesday as US job data came in just shy of market forecasts.
Having started the day in the black, the FTSE 100 Index fell into the red in mid-morning but rebounded to stand 4.05 points up at 6062 in early afternoon trading.
US employers created about 190,000 jobs in August, up from 177,000 in July but just below the 200,000 that markets were expecting, according to research group ADP.
One commentator described the figures as "rock-solid", with only the energy sector showing weakness.
The job data is among several key economic releases out in the US on Wednesday which economists will study for clues about the future direction of US interest rates.
Others include non-farm productivity, unit labour costs and crude oil inventories.
Craig Erlam at foreign exchange group OANDA said: "Naturally, many people will look to Friday’s jobs report as being the make or break moment for a rate hike this month, but I don’t think the Fed will be so narrow-minded."
Big miners were on the up as the price of copper stabilised. BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) gained 21p to 1077p, Anglo American (LON:AAL) lifted 1.6p to 686p and Rio Tinto (LON:RIO) increased 15p to 2286p.
Plant hire group Ashtead (LON:AHT) revved up 45p to 962p as the owner of A-Plant boosted first quarter profit by 23% thanks to strong demand in July.
British construction industry figures showed a slight rise in business activity and jobs in the sector in August.
The headline seasonally adjusted Markit/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index registered 57.3 in the month, up from 57.1 in July, with any reading above 50 indicating growth.
Traders were hoping for a lift from the data after Tuesday's downbeat manufacturing figures.
Oil majors fell as the price of a barrel of Brent crude declined 1% to US$49.07. A barrel of US light crude receded 1.7% to US$44.63. BP (LON:BP.) backtracked 5.7p to 343.7p and Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) was 12.5p off at 1633.5p.
Car parts and bike retailer Halfords (LON:HFD) reversed 51.1p to 458.9p after it forecast worse-than-expected second quarter cycling sales, although it said trading in other areas was robust.
Among smaller stocks, Empyrean Energy (LON:EME) drifted 0.38p to 5.88p as it revealed steady production despite major flooding.
Miner Mwana Africa (LON:MWA) fell 0.12p to 1.02p on news of plans to raise just short of £3.7mln to shore up its balance sheet and expand its diamond operation.
Advertising agency Spaceandpeople (LON:SAL) ticked up 11p to 88p on a new five-year deal with Network Rail to provide ads at train stations.
Hopes of upbeat news from forthcoming investor events in the US propelled shares in antibiotics developer Motif Bio (LON:MTFB) ahead by 3.5p to 58p.