Market overview: Greek bond yields edge lower despite ECB

1630:Close The top flight index established a fresh record high on Thursday, even if only by a marginal amount, after the ECB pleased investors with its plans to launch quantitative easing next Monday. While Aviva led gains following the release of its latest full-year numbers, it should probably come as little surprise that it was asset managers and insurers that led gains. Nonetheless, some analysts cautioned that the risk of a disorderly Greek exit from the euro area remained a distinct possibility. Somewhat conspicuously, the gains were made despite the fact that traders were still waiting on Friday’s US non-farm payrolls numbers. Overnight, Chinese authorities lowered their forecast for economic growth this year “to around 7%”. FTSE 100 up 42 points to 6,961.14.

1516: The yield on 10-year Greek bonds is down by 12 basis points to 9.5%.

1459: Oanda senior market analyst Craig Erlam highlights the negative reaction to the ECB's inflation projection for 2017 which continues to lie below its stated target of 2%. Erlam said: "All things considered, I will be very surprised if this program does not run past September next year, which Draghi did leave the door open to." For his part, BNP Paribas analyst Ken Wattret says he expected the inflation projections to be raised by less.

1402: ECB removes waiver on purchases of Greek debt.

1337: HSBC continues to trade near the bottom of the pile after going ex-dividend. ITV has been added to Goldman's conviction list.

1334: Speaking at today's ECB press conference president Mario Draghi says that its bond purchases will commence on 9 March.

1330: Initial US weekly unemployment claims rose by 7,000 to 320,000 (consensus: 295,000), the Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported. Unit labour costs increased at a 4.1% quarter-on-quarter clip in the fourth quarter (consensus: 3.3%).

1245: The European Central Bank has left its main refinancing rate at 0.05%, as expected. Markets will be waiting on further details from ECB president Mario Draghi at a press conference in Cyprus scheduled for 13:30.

1200: As expected, after today’s meeting the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) opted to keep its main policy settings unchanged. Bank Rate was kept at 0.50% and the size of the Asset Purchase Facility at £375bn.

1153: Betfair Group shares jump as much as 16% to 2066p in London after the online gambling company upgrades its 2015 profit outlook by 15% on the back of a strong performance in mobile gaming.

0832: Stocks have begun the morning nearly unchanged, with Aviva at the top of the leader-board following the insurance group’s latest set of full-year numbers. Hunting is the biggest gainer on the Stoxx 600 after beating analysts’ estimates on the bottom line and their dividend forecasts. Acting as a backdrop, overnight, at the start of the National People’s Congress (NPC), Chinese authorities lowered their forecast for economic growth this year to “about 7.5%” from “about 7.5%” for 2014. Beijing appears to be willing to tolerate a lower rate of expansion in the short-term, write economists at Capital Economics. However, all eyes will be on the results of the ECB’s policy meeting this afternoon. FTSE 100 up 9.86 points to 6,930.99.