Top-flight shares stayed in the red on Tuesday despite some upbeat news from the eurozone.
The FTSE 100 Index was 16.47 points adrift at 6335 by lunchtime in London while Germany's Dax fell 23 points and France's Cac-40 was 34 points off.
The European Central Bank's (ECB) October Bank Lending Survey (BLS) revealed a slight loosening of credit conditions for firms and stronger demand for loans.
Positive signals about the effects of QE on bank lending may encourage the ECB to do more, Capital Economics said.
Analysts at Rabobank said: "An expansion/extension of the asset purchase programme is the most likely next step by the ECB, but we believe this will take place in December at the earliest."
Back on the company news front, Costa Coffee and Premier Inn owner Whitbread (LON:WTB) rose 119p to 4844p as first-half profits rose and it 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 174p to 3102p.
Shares in InterContinental Hotels Group (LON:IHG), the globe's largest provider of hotel rooms, advanced 130p to 2441p in London as it reported strong room revenue growth in its third quarter.
Elsewhere, Condor Gold (LON:CNR) brightened 2p to 44.5p 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 2.5p or 11% to 18p.
Phorm (LON:PHRM) was up 0.38p at 5.12p. The advertising specialist said US charity donation innovator Causemo is using its machine learning artificial intelligence technology to deliver personal messages to increase its donations.
SolGold (LON:SOLG) rallied 0.22p to 2.12p. The company revealed the highest grade assay results to date at the Cascabel copper-gold project in Ecuador. Drilling at CSD-15-012, Hole 12, showed intersects of up to 1.75% copper.
Shanta Gold (LON:SHG) produced a record amount of gold from its New Luika mine in Tanzania in its latest quarter, with costs also sharply lower. Shares lifted 0.75p to 6.38p.
LONDON OPEN
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.