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The index had slipped 0.69 per cent to 4,250.45 at 11:46 BST with shares in Prudential performing the weakest. Reuters reports.
The company fell to 4.2.25p per share - a drop of 3.48 per cent - while there Friends Provident, Standard Chartered and Aviva also declined.
Market analyst Nick Serff explained that the low trading was due to the fact that interest rates in the US were held yesterday evening.
"The expected move by the Federal Reserve to keep rates just above zero wasn't well received on Wall Street," he stated, adding that a "spike" in US futures had resulted in the FTSE opening slightly higher.
Mining companies - with the exception of Xstrata which climbed 1.17 per cent to 862.70p - were also down.
Rio Tinto, Vedanta Resources, Anglo American and Kazakhmys dropped by between 2.14 and 2.53 per cent.
