The Footsie struggled for direction as oil started the week with a fall in prices.
The FTSE 100 Index rose 2.7 points to 5902.3, after Brent Crude tumbled by almost a dollar to $31.34.
Germany’s DAX was slightly up, while the Cac 40 in France was a little lower.
Oil prices have collapsed by more than 70% since their peak of around 115 US dollars a barrel in the summer of 2014, as large producers such as Saudi Arabia maintain production levels, putting US shale rivals under pressure.
Trustnet Direct market analyst Tony Cross said: “We’ve got a rather troubling start to the European session with crude oil having sold off quite sharply over the last hour or so.”
BP fell 5.6p to 347.3p and Royal Dutch Shell slipped 0.5p to 1387.5p.
Miners were also lower with Rio Tinto down 17p at 1637p and Antofagasta 2.8p lower at 369.4p.
Commodity shares make up about a fifth of the weighting of top flight shares. A lift in oil prices last week helped push the benchmark on Friday up 2.2% marking its best session in a month.
The pound was down a cent against the euro at just over 1.31, after UK factory orders weakened in January hit by slow demand for exports, according to data from the CBI.
The CBI’s order book balance for manufacturers fell to minus 15 in January from minus 7 in December, below expectations.
Sterling was also lower against the US dollar, at 1.42.
B&Q owner Kingfisher was the worst performer in the top flight, down more than 3%, or 11.7p to 333.3p, after it unveiled its plans to deliver £500 million in additional pre-tax profits by
2021, and return £600 million of capital to shareholders over the next three years.
The group has focused on streamlining the business, selling a controlling stake in B&Q China last year and setting out plans to shrink 15% of the B&Q store estate in the UK by 2016/17, reflecting roughly 60 stores.
It said it now plans to create a unified home improvement brand, boost its online presence and improve efficiency.
But analysts at Investec called its buyback plans “insufficient, given the execution risk”.
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