London stocks trod water in the absence of any major economic news overnight, although the eurozone was set to provide interest.
The FTSE 100 Index rose 9.55 points to 6361 in the first hour of trading after mixed performances from global indices.
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite and Japan's Nikkei 225 closed up, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng was 109 points off.
Attention later on Tuesday was tipped to focus on the European Central Bank's (ECB) latest bank lending survey.
Economists would have been seeking hints about any tightening of broader financial conditions that might merit a policy response, such as extension or expansion of its asset purchase programme.
Chris Scicluna at Daiwa Capital Markets said: "We expect today’s survey to report a continued improvement in credit conditions in the euro area, just one of several reasons why we do not expect Mario Draghi to announce extra easing this week."
Back on the company news front, Costa Coffee and Premier Inn owner Whitbread (LON:WTB) rose 111p to 4836p as it served up higher first-half profits and vowed to create 15,000 jobs within five years.
Online fashion firm ASOS (LON:ASC) said its international sales growth picked up in the financial year just ended as price cuts began to take effect. Shares ticked up 131p to 3059p.
Shares in InterContinental Hotels Group (LON:IHG), the globe's largest provider of hotel rooms, advanced 85p to 2396p in London as it reported strong room revenue growth in its third quarter.
Elsewhere, Condor Gold (LON:CNR) brightened 2.5p to 45p as a study of its La India project in Nicaragua showed it could mine a substantially higher amount of gold in the early stages.
News that a crusher failure had forced Aureus Mining (LON:AUE, TSE:AUE) to halt gold production at its New Liberty mine in Liberia hit its stock by 2.25p or 11% to 18.25p.
MARKET PREVIEW
London's blue-chips are set for a lacklustre start, after a mixed showing overnight from global indices.
Spread betting quotes point to the FTSE 100 opening around 10 points lower than last night's close of 6,352, despite US benchmarks making modest progress yesterday.
The S&P added a point to close at 2,034 in the US, while the Dow Jones hardened 15 to 17,231 and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 18 points to 4,905.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 86 points at 18,212 in the last hour of trading but in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was off 139 at 22,932.
Energy shares could be under pressure today after the oil price fell sharply overnight on the back of comments from Iran about production levels, plus lingering concerns about slowing Chinese growth following yesterday's gross domestic product data from the People's Republic.
China's economy will likely figure largely in the thoughts of shareholders attending the annual general meeting of mining giant BHP Billiton (LON:BLT).
Results from ASOS (LON:ASC) and Whitbread (LON:ASC) will likely grab the headlines when they come out at 7.00.