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At 09:19 BST the benchmark index was 25.58 points lower at 5,022.23 points, Reuters reports.
Mining companies took the most off the market, with Lonmin, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Eurasian Natural Resources and Kazakhmys all falling.
There were also declines for Xstrata and Anglo American, after it was announced that a three-week deadline has been set for Xstrata to propose a firm takeover offer for Anglo.
Elsewhere, Barclays, Standard Chartered, Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group were all lower and there were falls for a number of energy giants.
Market Strategist Joshua Raymond explained that trading has been muted ahead of the release of US non-farm payroll data, which is due this afternoon.
The fact that recent employment and jobless claims numbers for the country were poor means many investors are "sitting on the sidelines" over concerns that the payroll statistics will also be lower, he said.
