The FTSE 100 shed 20 points (0.35 percent) by 15:00 to 5,838. The FTSE 250 declined 31 points (0.25 percent) to 11,880 and the FTSE AIM 100 fell 17.5 points (0.45 percent) to 4,015.
Specialty chemicals firm Johnson Matthey (LON:JMAT), Associated British Foods (LON:ABF) and India operating energy company Essar Energy (LON:ESSR) led the blue chips, climbing 2.5 percent. Financial Times publisher Pearson (LON:PSON) and chipmaker ARM holdings (LON:ARM) were up 2 percent.
Security services firm G4S (LON:GFS) rose 1.5 percent. Outsourcer Capita Group (LON:CPI), cruise operator Carnival Corp (LON:CCL) and commodities trader Glencore (LON:GLEN) added just over 1 percent.
Temporary power provider Aggreko (LON:AGK) tacked on 1 percent.
Retailers Kingfisher (LON:KGF) and Marks & Spencer (LON:MKS) were among the heaviest fallers in the FTSE 100, shedding 1.8 percent and 1.5 percent respectively.
Oil & gas
Major energy companies were broadly flat today. BP (LON:BP) and Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB) posted small gains, as did services company Wood Group (LON:WG).
Midcap Heritage Oil (LON:HOIL) fell 1.2 percent.
Energy sector focused investor Xtract Energy (LON:XTR) and US focused Nighthawk Energy (LON:HAWK) were among the top performing small caps, advancing 8.5 percent and 8 percent respectively. Nostra Terra Oil & Gas (LON:NTOG) rose 5.5 percent.
Mining
Precious metals
Most mining stocks were in decline today. Fresnillo (LON:FRES) dropped 1.2 percent and Lonmin (LON:LMI) declined marginally. Another FTSE 100 constituent Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) tacked on almost 1 percent.
In the FTSE 250, Petropavlovsk (LON:POG) and Aquarius Platinum (LON:AQP) dropped 1.2 percent and percent.
African Barrick Gold (LON:ABG) dipped 1.7 percent.
Frontier Mining (LON:FML) tacked on more than 5 percent.
Base metals
Eurasian Natural Resources (LON:ENRC) was at the bottom of the pile with a loss of over 4 percent. Anglo American (LON:AAL), BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) and Vedanta Resources (LON:VED) lost about 1 percent.
Bank, insurance, private equity
HSBC (LON:HSBA) and Lloyds (LON:LLOY) lost 1 percent, while most other banks held steady.
Insurers were headed in different directions. Admiral Group (LON:ADM) and Aviva (LON:AV) dropped 1 percent, while Prudential (LON:PRU) and Standard Life (LON:SL) added almost 1 percent.
Small cap movers
Other notable movers among the small caps included Lipoxen (LON:LPX), which surged 13 percent. Seeing Machines (LON:SEE) and SeaEnergy (LON:SEA) also did well, climbing 10.5 percent and 9 percent respectively.