Britain's FTSE-100 index closed above session lows on Thursday after spending much of the day embedded in the red, drawing some support from gains in drugs firm GlaxoSmithKline and oil giant Shell.
Worries that China's appetite for metals might wane battered the miners and put a dampener on blue chips from the outset, with copper miner Antofagasta closing 3.4 percent lower and Xstrata down 2.7.
But GSK rose 2.9 percent after it announced a 10 percent fall in first-quarter earnings, which beat the expectations of a market already anticipating a hit from generic competition to its Paxil antidepressant and the impact of a weak dollar.
Shell, recently under pressure in the fallout from its reserves overbooking scandal, added 1.6 percent after it announced quarterly figures near the top end of expectations and said it would buy back an initial $2 billion worth of stock.
The blue chip index closed five points down at 4,519.5, rallying from a session low of 4,494.6 but adding to Wednesday's 51-point fall, despite the performance on Wall Street where strong profit growth and weaker-than-expected economic growth data fuelled an early session bounce.
Market watchers said UK investors had proved mistrustful of the US advance and were concerned about events in Iraq where another 10 US solders were killed. Monday's UK bank holiday also meant investors were reluctant to chase prices higher.
"We've had more US service deaths today and people are getting a feeling that Iraq is not going the way that it's supposed to. It's sinking in that the situation will go on for a lot longer and that's hurting the market," said one trader.
Some in the markets welcomed comments from Chinese premier Wen Jiabao, who told Reuters on Wednesday that forceful actions were needed to prevent China's economy from overheating.
"The one thing that's worried people on the inflationary front has been commodities and maybe the Chinese government is not that far from achieving the slowdown that it's been trying to engineer and I think people take that as a bit reassuring," said Dan Bunting, Strategist at Dryden Wealth Management.
Chemicals group ICI fell three percent as investors concentrated on worries its raw material costs could increase this year as world oil prices continued to rise, overlooking first-quarter profits which came in at the top end of forecasts.
Among other companies reporting, drugs firm AstraZeneca ended 0.9 percent up after it announced weaker first quarter earnings but reassured that money spent on cholesterol drug Crestor was bearing fruit and reiterated expectations that full year earnings per share would increase.
Midcap shares fell back in sharp contrast to blue chips, with the Midcap 25 index closing down 61.1 points at 6,250.2, led down by pubs group JD Wetherspoon which shed 5.6 percent as quarterly sales growth slowed.
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