At 0710 GMT, the blue-chip FTSE 100 index was up 4.67 points, or 0.1 percent, at 5,809.75 points. It slipped to a two-week low in the previous session before closing 0.1 percent higher in choppy trade.

UK mining index rose 1 percent, mirroring gains in base metals, after China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said the country's factory output should grow faster in the last three months of 2012.

Consumer goods giant Unilever, up 2.7 percent, topped the gainers' list after posting a 5.9 percent rise in underlying sales in the third quarter, beating analyst forecasts.

However, WPP, the world's largest advertising group, fell 3.7 percent after cutting its full-year outlook for the second time in two months.