London midday: Stocks pare losses as investors hope for last-minute Greek deal

UK stocks were trading in the red again on Tuesday, but had bounced off their lows by lunchtime as investors digested the latest news flow from Greece.

The FTSE 100 was trading 0.6% lower at 6,583.15 by midday, having bounced off an intraday low of 6,540.52 early on. The index has not closed below the 6,600 mark since 19 January.

Stocks dropped sharply the previous day after the Greek government called a referendum for 5 July, urging the public to vote against creditors’ demands in an effort to help it negotiate a better bailout deal with creditors. In the meantime, banks will remain closed until after the vote.

Greece’s current bailout programme expires on Tuesday, the same day that it faces a 23:00 deadline to repay €1.6bn to the IMF.

Nevertheless, markets rebounded slightly in morning trade on reports that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was reconsidering a last-minute plee by European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker to agree a deal.

“It seems more than likely that Greece will miss its payment due to the IMF on Tuesday, but until the deadline officially passes, markets are still pricing in the possibility of a last-ditch deal over the country’s bailout,” said CMC Markets analyst Jasper Lawler.

Meanwhile, reports also suggested that Turkey was studying the possibility of repaying the money Greece owes its creditors.

In economic news, the Office for National Statistics upwardly-revised its UK GDP growth estimate for the first quarter from 0.3% to 0.4%, in line with forecasts.

Northgate and Ocado fall

Commercial van hire group Northgate fell after underwhelming with its annual results, as it posted a 41% increase in underlying profits to £85m and hiked its dividend 45%. Broker Numis said trading was “solid” but lowered its rating on Northgate from ‘add’ to ‘hold’ due to less upside risk.

Investors also gave a cool reaction to half-year results from Ocado after the online grocery company missed forecasts slightly and reported a decline in the average basket size.

Supermarket rivals Tesco and Sainsbury were out of favour after industry data from Kantar revealed that both retailers suffered a decline in sales in the 12 weeks to 21 June.

Broker downgrades were also weighing heavily on a number of blue chips: HSBC was in the red after Goldman Sachs cut the stock to ‘neutral’, Compass was lower after Societe Generale cut its rating on the catering group to ‘sell’, while insurer Standard Life was hit by a downgrade at RBC Capital Markets to ‘underperform’.

Mining stocks were mostly lower as risk appetite waned, with heavyweights BHP Billiton, Glencore and Anglo American all registering falls. Rio Tinto, however, was seeing only small losses after a report in the Financial Times said that Xstrata’s former boss Mick Davis was in “serious” talks about buying some of Rio’s Australian coal assets.

Market Movers
techMARK 3,105.31 -0.23%
FTSE 100 6,597.32 -0.35%
FTSE 250 17,522.11 -0.07%

FTSE 100 - Risers
ARM Holdings (ARM) 1,061.00p +1.05%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,557.00p +0.84%
Meggitt (MGGT) 466.50p +0.76%
Hikma Pharmaceuticals (HIK) 1,898.00p +0.64%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 496.30p +0.63%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,030.50p +0.54%
Reed Elsevier (REL) 1,051.00p +0.48%
SABMiller (SAB) 3,338.50p +0.45%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 915.00p +0.44%
CRH (CRH) 1,816.00p +0.39%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,700.00p -2.35%
Tesco (TSCO) 213.70p -2.31%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,316.00p -1.91%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 269.10p -1.86%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 693.50p -1.63%
Standard Life (SL.) 451.00p -1.61%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,281.00p -1.58%
ITV (ITV) 265.40p -1.38%
Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 881.00p -1.23%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 2,443.00p -1.17%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Home Retail Group (HOME) 169.00p +4.13%
Clarkson (CKN) 2,680.00p +2.06%
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 454.00p +2.05%
Countrywide (CWD) 577.50p +1.85%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 982.50p +1.76%
Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 152.00p +1.67%
Ophir Energy (OPHR) 113.00p +1.53%
Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 2,140.00p +1.37%
UDG Healthcare Public Limited Company (UDG) 489.60p +1.35%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 318.90p +1.24%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Northgate (NTG) 570.00p -7.84%
Foxtons Group (FOXT) 235.30p -3.96%
Jimmy Choo (CHOO) 156.10p -3.34%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 539.50p -3.23%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 302.40p -2.83%
Lonmin (LMI) 112.50p -2.68%
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 564.50p -2.67%
Ted Baker (TED) 2,904.00p -2.65%
Senior (SNR) 285.90p -1.72%
Vesuvius (VSVS) 424.30p -1.69%

FTSE TechMARK - Risers
Triad Group (TRD) 22.50p +2.27%
E2V Technologies (E2V) 255.00p +2.00%
KCOM Group (KCOM) 93.00p +1.09%
IShares Euro Gov Bond 7-10YR UCITS ETF (IEGM) € 196.13 +0.11%

FTSE TechMARK - Fallers
Torotrak (TRK) 7.10p -7.19%
Oxford Biomedica (OXB) 8.53p -3.07%
Promethean World (PRW) 31.00p -2.36%
XP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 1,565.00p -2.19%
Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 994.00p -1.78%
BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. (BVC) 14.75p -1.67%
RM (RM.) 150.00p -0.99%
Sepura (SEPU) 158.00p -0.78%
Dialight (DIA) 521.00p -0.76%
SDL (SDL) 416.25p -0.42%