Britain's blue chip benchmark closed lower as US shares went downhill after the release of inflation data and the price of crude fell again.
FTSE100 closed at 5,950 - around 22 points lower on the day, with financial stocks losers and miners the notable gainers.
Also in focus and causing investor jitters are the talks in Brussels where UK PM Cameron continues to try and broker a deal with EU counterparts.
US inflation rose more than had been expected in January as the fall in energy prices eased, official stats showed.
It means the Fed rate rise question comes into view again, as this increase makes a rise more likely.
Alistair McCaig, at IG Index, noted that even the strongest monthly retail sales figures for the UK in two years has not been enough to inject enthusiasm into the markets.
"Oil remains close to $30 as traders have been unconvinced by developments from the major oil-producing nations.
"An agreement that didn’t include Iran in the first place, and peppered with caveats and loopholes has prevented spot prices from falling but done nothing to address the longer term issue of oversupply," he added.
Precious metals miners returned to favour, as is often the way when equities are soft, with Fresnillo (LON:FRES) top of Footsie, up 3.59% and Randgold Resources moving up 2.5% to 6,355p.
Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) fell 1.71% to 414.6p as heavyweight Deutsche Bank cut its target price for the emerging markets-focused bank to 450p from 510p.
Standard Life (LON:SL.) eased 0.5% after its full-year results. RBS (LON:RBS) also dropped 2.34% to 246p.
A notable riser was Coca-Cola HBC (LON:CCH), which added 2.84% to 1,413p after reported an increase in full year volumes and earnings.
The small cap which was the biggest gainer was digital marketing and technology group Milestone (LON:MSG), which added over 84% to 0.60p after it raised funds by issuing shares at a penny each.
Greatland Gold (LON:GGP) rocketed 41.67% to 0.09p as Paul Johnson lifted his holding above 4%.
Amur Minerals (lON:AMUR), focused on the Russian Far East went over 35% higher at 8.26p.
88Energy (LON:88E) rose almost 15% to 1.38p as Australian broker Patersons said its Icewine project was a ‘compelling’ one despite low oil prices.
Analyst Jason Chesters, in a note, has highlighted that Icewine is well located and near vital infrastructure, and pointed to cost advantages.