London open: Greece and its creditors stake out their positions
Stocks began the morning moving slightly lower as investors waited on a host of economic data and Greece and its creditors staked out their respective positions ahead of a meeting between both sides.
Currys
61.75p
16:40 26/04/24
Dixons Retail
52.95p
16:15 06/08/14
Food & Drug Retailers
3,956.27
16:59 26/04/24
FTSE 100
8,139.83
17:09 26/04/24
FTSE 250
19,824.16
16:59 26/04/24
FTSE 350
4,470.09
16:59 26/04/24
FTSE All-Share
4,423.59
17:14 26/04/24
General Retailers
3,910.25
16:59 26/04/24
Industrial Transportation
4,387.46
16:59 26/04/24
International Distributions Services
271.20p
16:40 26/04/24
Interserve
6.05p
16:54 15/03/19
Support Services
10,641.76
16:59 26/04/24
Tesco
288.90p
16:40 26/04/24
As of 09:26 the Footsie was down by 0.04 points to reach 6,928.23.
Greece’s prime minister Alexis Tsipras and the head of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, were set to meet later in the evening in an attempt to narrow the gap between the two sides.
However, ahead of that meeting the head of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said the country’s creditors have no intention of meeting it halfway.
The European Central Bank’s governing council was due to meet later in the day. Shortly after the policy announcement, Draghi’s press conference was set to be closely followed for word on how the quantitative easing (QE) programme has been progressing.
The ECB’s president was expected to reiterate his commitment to see the central bank’s bond purchase programme out in full.
Results from two service sector purchasing manager’s indices from the UK and US were also set to be released.
UK house prices increased by 4.6% year-on-year in May, slightly less than the 5.3% rise clocked in the prior month, according to Nationwide.
Dixons, Royal Mail, Interserve
After a strong fourth quarter Dixons Carphone said its full year profits are likely to reach the top end of market forecasts. Group like-for-like revenue in the last 17 weeks of the year to 2 May rose 9%, with further market share gains made across electricals and mobile in the UK & Ireland, the Nordics and Greece.
Royal Mail announced that it has appointed Peter Long as non-executive director and chairman designate. Long, who is currently joint chief executive of TUI AG, will replace Donald Brydon, who announced in January that he would step down this year.
Interserve's joint venture with China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC) has been selected as the preferred bidder to build the £550m One Nine Elms scheme in Battersea. The scheme, which is part of a wider development, includes the construction of two towers of 57 and 42 storeys and a 187-room five-star hotel.
Broker JP Morgan Cazenove has lowered its estimates and price target on grocery giant Tesco following the latest grocery market share figures from Kantar Worldpanel. Analyst Borja Olcese lowered his target price on the firm’s shares to 175p from 185p previously, while reiterating his recommendation to ‘underweight’.
Lloyds Banking Group was on Wednesday awaiting the judgement from the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice on whether it can go ahead with the cancellation of the enhanced capital notes (ECNs).
Market Movers
techMARK 3,299.85 -0.01%
FTSE 100 6,923.79 -0.06%
FTSE 250 18,281.02 +0.33%
FTSE 100 - Risers
CRH (CRH) 1,827.00p +1.95%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 175.70p +1.86%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 248.90p +1.55%
Unilever (ULVR) 2,868.00p +1.24%
Direct Line Insurance Group (DLG) 342.70p +1.09%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 3,241.00p +0.97%
Sports Direct International (SPD) 677.50p +0.89%
Tesco (TSCO) 209.25p +0.87%
Wolseley (WOS) 4,135.00p +0.85%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 347.60p +0.70%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
British Land Company (BLND) 838.00p -1.64%
National Grid (NG.) 908.20p -1.53%
SSE (SSE) 1,620.00p -1.16%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,422.00p -1.04%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 252.20p -0.94%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,282.00p -0.93%
Pearson (PSON) 1,288.00p -0.92%
Centrica (CNA) 272.10p -0.91%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,405.00p -0.71%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 620.60p -0.61%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Indivior (INDV) 242.00p +2.98%
WH Smith (SMWH) 1,580.00p +2.73%
Melrose Industries (MRO) 275.00p +2.69%
Workspace Group (WKP) 942.50p +2.45%
Berendsen (BRSN) 1,059.00p +2.32%
Booker Group (BOK) 180.20p +2.15%
Domino's Pizza Group (DOM) 834.00p +2.14%
Lonmin (LMI) 144.00p +2.06%
Aveva Group (AVV) 2,015.00p +2.03%
Crest Nicholson Holdings (CRST) 547.50p +1.96%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Morgan Advanced Materials (MGAM) 341.30p -3.59%
Spectris (SXS) 2,249.00p -3.14%
Cranswick (CWK) 1,577.00p -1.87%
Amec Foster Wheeler (AMFW) 902.00p -1.42%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 339.30p -1.05%
Merlin Entertainments (MERL) 440.00p -0.97%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 252.90p -0.94%
Rank Group (RNK) 212.20p -0.84%
Barr (A.G.) (BAG) 613.00p -0.81%
Evraz (EVR) 167.50p -0.71%