By Roger Baird, Press Association City Staff
The London market fell, despite the announcement that ITV snapped up fellow broadcaster UTV Media.
ITV said buying the Northern Ireland-based station for £100 million would further strengthen its free-to-air business, and means the broadcaster owns 13 of the 15 regional licences for the Channel 3 network.
The FTSE 100 Index fell 25.7 points to 6352.3, knocked by disappointing overnight economic news from China and giving up the positive momentum the market gained at the end of last week.
China's economy in the third quarter slumped to a six-year low, while the factory output in the world's second largest economy in September was below forecasts.
The data comes as Chinese President Xi Jinping begins a four-day state visit to the UK as part of a push to increase trade ties between the two countries.
Germany's DAX was 0.6% higher, while France's Cac 40 was flat. In New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average was also flat in early trading.
The pound was up against the US dollar at just under 1.55, as traders continued to mull over Friday's data that showed American manufacturing output fell by 0.1%, its second monthly fall in a row. Sterling was up against the euro, at just under 1.37.
Shares in UTV Media were up 10.5p to 184p on the television deal, while ITV was up 0.8p at 249.5p.
Analysts at Liberum said the widely anticipated agreement "makes sense strategically in cleaning up the ITV1 network."
Barclays was a strong riser in the top flight up 3.9p to 254.7p, with the market warming to recent reports that the bank is poised to appoint former JP Morgan banker Jes Staley as its new chief executive in a move signalling plans to return the group to its former investment banking glory.
Recent slides in the gold price saw precious metal miners among the biggest fallers with Randgold Resources down 85p at 4487p and silver miner Fresnillo 25p lower to 734.5p.
While commodity firms were also shaken by the latest data from China, with Royal Dutch Shell down 35p to 1799.5p, Anglo American 49.8p lower to 625.5p and BHP Billiton off 33.5p to 1096p.
Primark owner Associated British Foods saw its shares fall 24p to 3284p, after a note from Berenberg downgraded the stock to "hold" from "buy".
The broker said the strong pound would impact on margins at Primark, which is in the middle of a US expansion.
Elsewhere, shares in education software and services firm Tribal Group tumbled 39%, or 47.5p to 75p, after it said its full year operating profit will be "significantly" below its expectations.
The firm said that it had won a number of major contracts in recent years, but that had made it less successful at building a pipeline of medium-sized and smaller opportunities to complement its larger deals.
The biggest risers in the FTSE 100 Index were Shire up 115p at 4626p, Compass up 18p at 1072p, Hikma Pharmaceuticals up 35p at 2105p and Carnival up 54p at 3449p.
The biggest fallers in the FTSE 100 Index were Anglo American down 49.8p at 625.5p, Glencore down 6p at 110p, Antofagasta down 20p at 559.5p and Fresnillo down 25p at 734.5p.
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