Footsie was nursing modest losses as investors waited to see how US markets reacted to Apple’s shock warning over iPhone sales.
The London index shed 25 points at 5,887 ahead of the US open, with spread bet firms expecting the Dow Jones Industrial to open about 80 points lower.
Apple's share price bounced about in overnight trading, but may be facing a more concerted dip when the US market opens.
US investors will be wary anyway as they await the outcome of the US Federal Reserve’s first meeting of the year.
"Any hint of interest rate rises in 2016 could upset short-term sentiment further," said Manoj Ladwa, partner at broker TJM Partners, though few expect this.
Banks were again in the dog house as Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS) shed 3.7% to 251.3p after setting aside another £2.5bn for payment protection insurance compensation and US sub-prime lending legal claims.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said: "A messy and disappointing trading statement from RBS gets the banking sector’s reporting season off to a bad start.
Spanish bank Santander added to the gloom overhanging the sector as it set aside a further £450mln for its own PPI mis–selling misdemeanours.
And to underline that UK bread and butter bank activity trading is not getting easier, mortgage approvals for house purchase by the main high street banks fell to 43,975 in December from 44,533 in November, below consensus.
Sage (LON;SGE) was the best of the FTSE 100 risers as its first quarter trading update pleased.
Organic revenue rose by 6.6% with a larger rise in software subscription revenue. Shares rose by 5% to 598p.
Investors lost their appetite for takeway food app Just Eat (LON;JE.) as Morgan Stanley downgraded the shares to ‘underweight’ with a 390p price target.
Competition from alternative platforms is growing, said the broker.
Spread bet firm London Capital Group (LON:LCG) slumped 17% to 6.10p after forecasting a big loss for 2015 and saying it was considering increasing its regulatory capital to boost growth.
Enterprise commerce platform group blur (LON:BLUR) rose 19% to 13p on decent business metrics.
Premier African Minerals (LON:PREM) marked time as it identified significantly higher amounts of ore at its RHA project in Zimbabwe.
Minds & Machines (LON:MMX) climbed 1% to 7.07p as the internet domain group outlined plans to expand into China, where it is now working with registry services company ZDNS.