Top-flight shares were in the doldrums ahead of the European Central Bank's monthly rate-setting decision.
The FTSE 100 Index was down 17.2 points at 6,711.75 as commentators speculated that the ECB would hold rates but would signal more monetary pump-priming in September.
There was more bad UK economic news as retail sales figures showed a 0.9% month-on-month drop in June, below the consensus of -0.6%.
The year-over-year growth rate dropped to 4.3% from 5.7% in May, below the consensus of 5%.
Samuel Tombs at Pantheon Macroeconomics said sales fell in all major sectors, bar household goods which held steady, suggesting that the heightened economic uncertainty due to Brexit risk was the main driver.
Petrol sales will fall sharply over the coming months in response to the jump in sterling oil prices, then retailers will begin to pass on higher import prices to consumers from early 2017.
"The combination of higher prices, job cuts and the Chancellor’s decision not to immediately alter the fiscal plans likely will bring the recovery in consumer spending to its knees," he said.
In small-caps, Science in Sport PLC (LON:SIS) jumped 9.57% to 51.5p as the sport nutrition company reported a 24% rise in sales to £6.48mln in the six months to the end of June.
Online white goods retailer AO World PLC (LON:AO.) ticked up 7.9% to 145p on news of higher sales in the UK and continental Europe.
Premier African Minerals Limited (LON:PREM) strengthened 7.7% to 0.7p as it said it expected to soon start a new exploration programme at the Zulu site in Zimbabwe to produce a compliant resource estimate after the potential for massive lithium-rich mineralisation was confirmed.
But Osirium Technologies PLC (LON:OSI) fell 13.3% to 162.5p after the cyber security software provider reported lower half-year revenue and higher losses.
Back in the top flight, the biggest loser was easyJet (LON:EZJ) down 5.5% to 1,065p, as group revenues nosedived in the third quarter.
Preview at 6.53am
London’s FTSE 100 is seen a little lower on Thursday as investors in Europe await comments from Mario Draghi.
The European Central Bank president speaks later today, after the ECB’s latest policy decision.
There’s little expectation of any action from the ECB this month, given it is already injecting some €80bn of liquidity each month, though markets will likely hang on the words of the central banker as he talks Brexit and Europe.
Over the Atlantic, meanwhile, US stocks continue to push higher on the back of largely positive quarterly earnings.
“The S&P 500 continues to make new highs, backed by better-than-expected corporate earnings,” Chris Weston, analyst at IG Markets.
“While we have only seen 16% of US firms report, 78% have beaten expectations on earnings and 60% on sales.
“Those that have beaten on the EPS line have done so by an average of 5.6% and while there is still a large percentage of names to report, traders are extrapolating out across the curve.”
On Wednesday the Dow Jones gained 0.19% to 18,595, while the S&P 500 added over 0.4% to 2,173 and the Nasdaq advanced over 1% to 5,089.
In Asia, meanwhile, stock indices all pointed higher too.
Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.5% to 16,773, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng notched 0.8% higher 22,056, and the Shanghai Composite gained 0.7% to 3,050.
Australia’s ASX 200 climbed 0.45% to 5,512.
In London, IG Markets called the FTSE 100 20 points lower with the spread seen at 6,707 to 6,712 with a little over an hour to go before the start of stock market trading.