By Alistair Smout
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's top equity index stalled after disappointing domestic and international economic data pointed to a weak manufacturing outlook.
Britain's FTSE 100 (FTSE) turned negative following a positive open, after the closely watched PMI manufacturing survey missed expectations, even as activity in Britain edged off of a seven-year low.
While there was strong domestic demand, the survey found that it was largely offset by weak exports.
Concerns over global growth were heightened by data from China which showed that export demand shrank again, prompting companies to shed jobs and keeping alive worries about a protracted economic slowdown.
Stocks with exposure to global growth led the UK lower, with FTSE 350 miners (FTNMX1770) down 0.9 percent, and Asia-exposed bank Standard Chartered (L:STAN) down 1.5 percent.
Precious metal miner Fresnillo (L:FRES) led fallers as gold dipped. Oil firms fell in line with a drop in Brent crude.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 index (FTSE) was down by 6.88 points, or 0.1 percent, at 6,977.66 points at 1036 GMT, although it remains up over 6 percent since the start of 2015.
Ashtead (L:AHT) rose 2.1 percent, the top FTSE 100 gainer, recovering from a drop last week after positive broker comment from Jefferies.
Lloyds (L:LLOY) rose 1.2 percent after Britain said it would launch a sale of shares in the bank to private retail investors in the next 12 months, and extended a facility enabling it to sell more shares to financial institutions.
AstraZeneca rose 0.7 percent after the company presented positive data on its 'AZD9291' cancer treatment product.
Some traders maintained a cautious stance towards the FTSE given lingering uncertainty over Greece's debt problems, though most investors expect Greece to remain within the euro zone.
Athens and its euro zone and International Monetary Fund (IMF) creditors have been locked in talks for months on a cash-for-reforms agreement.
"I think it'd a case of markets being risk off until we reach a resolution on Greece," Mike McCudden, head of derivatives, adding traders could remain cautious ahead of closely watched U.S. jobs data at the end of the week.
"With all the data this week as well, there's a lot to be nervous about."!
(Additional mreporting by Tricia Wright and Sudip Kar-Gupta)