UK small caps are broadly flat in mid-session trade,while the mid-caps slip 0.1 percent, and the blue chips are 0.5 percent weaker.
Automotive retailer Vertu Motors advances nearly 7percent after saying it expects its profit for the year toend-February to come in ahead of expectations.
Oil and gas explorer Ithaca Energy slides nearly 11percent, hitting four-month lows, after it says it will buyValiant Petroleum for 203 million pounds ($308.15million) in cash and stock.
Valiant Petroleum jumps more than 28 percent.
Reuters messagingrm://tricia.wright1.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net($1 = 0.6588 British pounds)