The London market dipped on Tuesday as traders fretted over more dismal Chinese data and a potential US December interest rate hike.
The FTSE 100 Index pared early gains to stand 10.72 points off at 6284 in early trading.
The Dax in Frankfurt and the CAC-40 in Paris were also down despite a 0.1% rise in French industrial production.
Data out of Beijing showed Chinese inflation at its lowest since June. CPI rose 1.3%, missing expectations of 1.5%, as the recent surge in pork prices starts to drop out of the numbers. It followed figures showing a drop in Chinese imports and exports last month.
Michael Hewson at CMC Markets said the “elephant in the room” was still worry about the Chinese economy.
"Given another sharp drop in the imports number at the weekend, it is no surprise that the latest Chinese inflation numbers have continued to underscore this concern," he said.
Hewson also pointed out that a known dove on the US Federal Open Markets Committee, Charles Evans, had softened his tone by saying he would not oppose a rise in rates in December if most other committee members wanted one.
On the markets, Vodafone (LON:VOD) rang up an 8.45p gain to 222.9p after increasing its full-year earnings guidance on the back of improving European markets.
But builder's merchant Wolseley (LON:WOS) subsided 173p or 4.5% to 3632p on news that trading in one of its core markets, Britain, was proving tough.
Investors switched on to ITV (LON:ITV) by 3.3p to 260.1p as the UK terrestrial broadcaster forecasted a double-digit profit rise this year and called the outlook encouraging.
Rockhopper Exploration (LON:RKH) ticked up 0.25p to 40.75p as it announced success with a drilling operation off the Italian coast.
Internet domain name provider Centralnic sparked 5p or 9.3% to 59p after becoming the first web domain wholesaler to sell 2mln new top-level domain (TLD) names.
MARKET PREVIEW
UK shares are called to open higher on Tuesday after sharp losses on global markets yesterday and as traders eye a possible Fed rate rise across the Pond.
The FTSE100 ended yesterday down 59 points at 6,295, while the Dow lost 180 points - its fourth consecutive day of losses. The German Dax ended 173 points lower at 10,815.
But today, financial spreadbetters at IG Index are calling the UK benchmark to open around 31 points higher.
It comes after the latest batch of Chinese data did nothing to lighten the mood and heightened fears over the slowdown of growth in the People's Republic.
The Shanghai Composite Index is down almost at eight at the time of writing - at 3,638.
The country's consumer price index (CPI) for last month (October) rose 1.3% against the same month a year earlier, which was below expectations of a 1.5% rise, while producer price index (PPI) fell 5.9% in October - its 44th straight month of declines after dropping 5.9 percent in the previous month.
Angus Nicholson, analyst at IG, noted: "In the wake of today’s CPI and PPI data, it is clear that there are currently low risks for an inflation overshoot if the Chinese central bank does choose to ease monetary policy. Questions will now turn to whether we will see a move on this front before the year is out..."
The question of when the US may raise rates, and December has been hinted at, was brought further into view, by Friday’s much better than expected US job creation number.
In a 'normal' world, a positive sign, but it also signalled the beginning of the end for the era of very cheap money, which has made investors jittery.