Rising copper prices helped London traders to shrug off disappointing services data on Thursday.
Shares in miners rose as the price of the red metal hit a three-and-a-half-month high, helping the FTSE 100 Index to pare losses and rise 8.9 points to 6156 at lunchtime.
Analysts said the rise was due to fresh hopes that Beijing would take action to stimulate the Chinese economy.
The index had earlier been held back after unofficial Caixin services PMI data echoed official figures earlier in the week, with the headline activity index down 1.2pts to 51.7.
In the eurozone, services data fared a little better than the manufacturing equivalent, but was still down for the second month in a row to 53.0, the lowest since the start of 2015.
The news in the UK was worse as purchasing managers index data showed growth in the services sector slowing to its weakest in nearly three years in February.
There were yet more warnings of the damage that a UK departure from the EU could do to Britain's economy.
Bosses of BMW-owned car companies in the UK, including Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and Mini, wrote to their workers warning that an exit would be bad for business.
And foreign exchange trader Caxton FX said it could spark a currency crisis. Analyst Nicholas Laser-Ebisch said: "Investors would leave the UK market faster than a jack rabbit on a hot greasy griddle in August."
Car insurer Admiral (LON:ADM) rallied 119p to 1879p as it reported a 6% rise in pre-tax profit to £377mln and hiked its dividend by 16% to 114.4p per share.
Genel Energy (LON:GENL) recovered losses earlier this week after a 22% rise in production against a year earlier partly offset a 34% drop in revenues for 2015 as a result of falling oil prices. Shares in the Kurdistan-focused producer jumped 9p to 86.75p.
Shares in Domino's Pizza (LON:DOM) cooled 16p to 1033p after the takeaway chain reported higher profits and a good start to 2016 but said it would face an uphill task to match last year's strong performance.
Strategic Minerals (LON:SML) saw good demand for magnetite from its Cobre site in New Mexico, but said commodity price falls had seriously affected its ability to carry through its strategy. Shares fell 13% to 0.1p.
Challenger Acquisitions (LON:CHAL), which invests in big observation wheel projects such as the London Eye, descended 0.12p to 22.6p after raising £500,000 in a convertible loan note issue.
Petra Diamonds (LON:PDL) twinkled 5p to 108p as Macquarie upgraded the miner to 'outperform' from 'neutral'.
But the Australian investment bank did the reverse with rival diamond company Gem Diamonds (LON:GEMD), causing its shares to fall 0.09p to 43.91p.
LONDON OPEN
Disappointing services sector data in China and Europe left London shares lower on Thursday.
The FTSE 100 Index fell about 16 points to 6131 after unofficial Caixin services PMI data out overnight echoed official figures earlier in the week, with the headline activity index down 1.2pts to 51.7.
Analysts at Daiwa Capital Markets said in a note: "Given the deterioration in the equivalent manufacturing survey earlier in the week, this left the composite output PMI back in contraction territory for the fifth month out of the past seven."
In the eurozone, services data fared a little better than the manufacturing equivalent, but was still down for the second month in a row to 53.0, the lowest since the start of 2015.
And in the UK, there was more bad news as purchasing managers index data showed growth in the services sector slowing to its weakest in nearly three years in February.
In the markets, oil continued its descent after US inventory data on Wednesday showed rising stockpiles, adding to the world's supply glut. The price of a barrel of Brent crude dropped 0.7% to US$36.7.
Genel Energy (LON:GENL) recovered losses earlier this week after a 22% rise in production against a year earlier partly offset a 34% drop in revenues for 2015 as a result of falling oil prices. Shares in the Kurdistan-focused producer jumped 5.5p to 83.25p.
Shares in Domino's Pizza (LON:DOM) were 3p cooler at 1046p after the takeaway chain reported higher profits and a good start to 2016 but said it would face an uphill task to match last year's strong performance.
Strategic Minerals (LON:SML) saw good demand for magnetite from its Cobre site in New Mexico but said commodity price falls had seriously affected its ability to carry through its strategy. Shares fell 13% to 0.1p.
Challenger Acquisitions (LON:CHAL), which invests in big observation wheel projects such as the London Eye, ascended 0.25p to 23p after raising £500,000 through the issue of convertible loan notes.
MARKET PREVIEW
London’s blue-chip stocks are set to start Thursday mostly flat, after the rally in global equities cooled somewhat.
Better oil prices brought markets higher earlier in the week, but, now Friday’s US employment stats for February are coming into focus.
Wednesday saw Wall Street edge higher, with the Dow Jones ending 34 points or 0.2% into positive territory at 16,899 while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose 0.4% and 0.3% respectively.
In Asia, stocks also mostly moved higher.
Japan’s Nikkei gained over 200 points, about 1.3%, to 16,960.
The Shanghai Composite notched up a 0.15% rise, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was the odd one out with a 144 point or 0.7% decline.
Australia’s ASX 200 moved some 60 points, 1.2%, higher.
Crude prices remain supportive. Brent crude was slightly higher early this morning, at $36.85 per barrel, and US crude futures climbed 0.7% to change hands at $34.65.
In London, CFD and speadbetting firm IG Markets is calling the FTSE 100 down by about 5 points at 6,140 to 6,145.