With the Scottish independence vote looming traders again shied away from big bets which left the FTSE-100 Index in negative territory.
In contrast, European markets were higher following increased hopes on Wall Street that members of the US Federal Reserve will stick to their pledge of low interest rates at the end of their latest two-day meeting.
The FTSE-100 Index was 11.3 points lower at 6780.9.
IG chief market strategist Brenda Kelly said: "The Scottish polls are still too close to predict an outcome with any certainty, but while the broad expectation in the Square Mile is that Scotland will vote No, helped along by a barnstorming speech by former PM Gordon Brown, no-one is prepared to risk too much until the result is actually known."
The Bank of England also looks likely to keep interest rates low for some time after minutes of its most recent monetary policy meeting showed seven members in favour of no change in rates earlier this month. Sterling climbed back above the 1.63 mark versus the greenback, while it was also up against the euro, at 1.25. There was also a boost for the UK economy from the latest unemployment figures, which showed a jobless total of 2.02 million for the quarter to July, down by 146,000 on the February to April period.
Housebuilders were higher after Barratt Developments rose 11.7p to 392p and Persimmon added 2p to 1352p. Mortgage lender Lloyds Banking Group added 1.3p to 74.8p.
Technology stocks were also higher after chip firm Imagination Technologies, which designs mobile graphics processors, reported encouraging activity. This provided a boost to shares of Apple chip designer ARM Holdings, which rose 20.5p to 940.5p.
In other corporate news, Smiths Group was the leading faller after highlighting a disappointing performance in its airport scanners division.
The impact of sterling's recent strength also offset stronger performances in other parts of the engineering conglomerate as it reported an 11 per cent drop in full-year profits to £445m. Shares were six per cent lower, off 81p to 1268p at the top of the FTSE 100 fallers board. JD Sports Fashion led the FTSE 250 Index after posting a doubling of profits, driven by its sports stores and a reduced loss at its estate of outdoor outlets. Shares rallied four per cent or 17.1p to 425.1p. Chemring was up one per cent in spite of fall in quarterlly revneue. The order book at the heavy munitions and bomb detector maker grew four per cent.
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