Eyes are on the Eurozone today as it kicks off the two-day informal meeting of the ministers for Economic and Financial Affairs, better known as Ecofin. For some time now, the finance ministers from the 27 member European Union have been expected to discuss and make a final decision on possible adjustments to the European bailout fund.
Just one day after S&P’s Moritz Kraemer said that there is a significant possibility of a future Greek debt restructuring, the Hellenic Republic’s Prime Minister Lucas Papademos admitted that not even he could rule out the need for a third bailout package in the future. When asked in an interview with Il Sole 24 Ore if a third adjustment programme would be needed, Papademos specifically stated that “it cannot be excluded that some financial support may be necessary”.
In other news, France's budget deficit stood at 5.2% of GDP in 2011, well under the government's 5.7% target.
Brent crude futures were up 0.5% early on at $123.04 a barrel on the ICE Europe as prices recovered from the 2.5% fall over the last three days on the back of rising US stockpiles.
MINERS ON THE UP
Miners were performing strongly in the opening hour with Kazakhmys, Vedanta Resources, Antofagasta, Rio Tinto, ENRC, Fresnillo and Xstrata in demand. Despite this morning's 1.3% rise for the mining sector as a whole, stocks are still down an average 8.9% over the last month. Rio Tinto announced this morning that it has joined the China Beijing Metals Exchange (CBMX), a new electronic trading platform providing additional iron ore trading channels in the Chinese market.
Engineering titan GKN was a high riser with Jefferies saying this morning that it believes Volvo Aero would be a "good fit with GKN Aerospace". "It appears the suggestion GKN might partly fund its acquisition with new equity has caused the market some anxiety. Should the big day arrive, the acquisition would probably stand on its merits, in our view," the broker said.
Real estate investment trust British Land rose after announcing that the Gibraltar Limited Partnership, in which it has a 41% stake, agreed a new five-year £150m loan facility.
Drugs giant AstraZeneca has had a bad run of late so news that a US District Court has ruled that the formulation patent protecting its SEROQUEL XR blockbuster drug is valid will be most welcome with shares up 0.6% early on.
Sweeteners giant Tate and Lyle fell despite saying that trading in the final quarter of its financial year has been in line with expectations, consolidating a good performance for the year.
FTSE 250: LSE, ELECTROCOMPONENTS AND QINETIQ IN DEMAND AFTER UPDATES
Bourses operator London Stock Exchange reported a 'continued good operational performance' in the eleven months to February 29th and said it should meet expectations of strong results for the full-year.
Electrical components quarter Electrocomponents rose after saying that sales rose 7% in the year to March 31st to more than £1.2bn, with the International division setting the pace with sales growth of around 9%, compared to growth of around 3% for the UK.
QinetiQ was also in demand after revealing that it is to get a one-off payment of £65m from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) after the two parties signed an agreement releasing the MoD from accumulated costs incurred in previous years.
FTSE 100 - Risers
GKN (GKN) 208.80p +3.16%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 919.00p +2.97%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,240.00p +2.48%
IMI (IMI) 970.50p +2.32%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,737.00p +2.30%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,147.00p +2.23%
CRH (CRH) 1,277.00p +2.16%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,443.50p +2.01%
Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,050.00p +1.94%
Glencore International (GLEN) 394.70p +1.91%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Tate & Lyle (TATE) 689.00p -0.86%
Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,537.00p -0.78%
SSE (SSE) 1,312.00p -0.76%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 173.30p -0.66%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 627.00p -0.63%
Diageo (DGE) 1,507.00p -0.56%
Experian (EXPN) 972.50p -0.46%
Next (NXT) 2,969.00p -0.37%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 590.50p -0.34%
Shire Plc (SHP) 2,112.00p -0.28%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 246.80p +5.02%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 307.60p +4.45%
International Personal Finance (IPF) 264.40p +3.28%
Afren (AFR) 130.90p +2.99%
Lamprell (LAM) 342.00p +2.70%
Soco International (SIA) 301.90p +2.55%
Invensys (ISYS) 198.80p +2.53%
Spirit Pub Company (SPRT) 63.50p +2.42%
Petropavlovsk (POG) 599.00p +2.39%
Heritage Oil (HOIL) 142.70p +2.37%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Carpetright (CPR) 683.00p -2.43%
SVG Capital (SVI) 285.90p -1.14%
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 477.40p -0.81%
Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 155.20p -0.77%
KCOM Group (KCOM) 69.50p -0.71%
ITE Group (ITE) 223.20p -0.58%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 232.20p -0.51%
Dignity (DTY) 811.00p -0.49%
Betfair Group (BET) 864.50p -0.46%
London & Stamford Property (LSP) 110.60p -0.45%
Market Movers
techMARK 2,053.90 +0.23%
FTSE 100 5,767.16 +0.44%
FTSE 250 11,520.30 +0.78%
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