London open: Analysts sanguine on Greece, oil forecasts revised higher

Stocks have begun the morning moving modestly higher on residual optimism over the Greek debt negotiations and on the coat-tails of overnight gains on Wall Street, which saw the Nasdaq Composite close above its previous early 2000 record highs.

“Greece is cash-strapped, and the situation is worsening. But despite the evident deterioration of the country's liquidity position, we believe Greece can still survive, for another month or so, without external financial support. The government is playing its last cards to stay afloat without defaulting on its obligations, for at least another few weeks [….],” wrote analysts at Credit Suisse.

As of 09:07 the yield on 10-year Greek government bonds was falling by 12 basis points to 12.26%.

On a similarly upbeat note, Germany´s IFO business confidence index rose to a reading of 108.6 in April after a print of 107.9 in the month before. That was slightly ahead of the consensus estimate of 108.4.

Acting as a backdrop, the Financial Times is reporting on concern in British boardrooms over the more successful than expected opposition which Ed Miliband has been putting up, as can be gleaned by David Cameron´s failure to open up a lead over Labour in the polls.

In parallel, Societe Generale has increased its forecast for the average price of Brent in the second quarter by $6.67 to $58 a barrel and for the full-year to $4.33 to reach $59.54 - as the rebalancing in the US 'tight-oil' industry begins.

Pearson and AstraZeneca lead early losses

Shares in publishing and education group Pearson were lower despite the company saying it was in-line to meet its full-year expectations after a solid start to the year. The firm also reiterated its full-year guidance for adjusted earnings per share of between 75p and 80p this year, up from 66.7 in 2014. However, the group´s chairman announced he would be stepping down.

AstraZeneca is the worst performer on the the Footsie in the early going despite saying sales fell by 6% in the first quarter, which was slightly less-than-expected. The pharmaceutical giant´s trading was negatively impacted by the launch of a generic version of its acid pill Nexium Stateside.

After receiving some takeover interest, BAE Systems confirmed it was pondering a disposal of its US-based manpower and services businesses, which operates in the US intelligence and security (I&S) sector.

First-quarter numbers from Reckitt Benckiser were better than the market expected, with like-for-like sales from the household goods behemoth up 5% thanks to strong growth from consumer health brands such as Nurofen, Gaviscon and Durex.

The state has lowered its stake in Lloyds by 1% to 20.95%, the lender told the market in a statement.

Aberdeen Asset Management was downgraded by analysts at Bank of America-Merrill Lynch to 'underperform'.

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FTSE 100 - Fallers
AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,721.50p -2.25%
Whitbread (WTB) 5,285.00p -0.84%
Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 552.50p -0.81%
Pearson (PSON) 1,392.00p -0.71%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,000.00p -0.70%
Dixons Carphone (DC.) 434.20p -0.60%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 484.70p -0.57%
Sage Group (SGE) 484.30p -0.51%
Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,361.00p -0.51%
St James's Place (STJ) 903.00p -0.50%

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Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 248.20p +5.80%
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Dunelm Group (DNLM) 895.00p +3.05%
Spire Healthcare Group (SPI) 321.10p +2.78%
Greencore Group (GNC) 349.40p +2.52%
Interserve (IRV) 587.00p +2.26%
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Computacenter (CCC) 688.00p +2.08%

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Rotork (ROR) 2,369.00p -2.51%
Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 164.40p -2.03%
Pace (PIC) 438.70p -1.86%
Lonmin (LMI) 143.20p -1.65%
Renishaw (RSW) 2,498.00p -1.34%
Spectris (SXS) 2,220.00p -1.33%
Supergroup (SGP) 925.00p -1.33%
Merlin Entertainments (MERL) 448.10p -1.28%
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Consort Medical (CSRT) 935.50p -1.21%
KCOM Group (KCOM) 93.75p -0.27%
Skyepharma (SKP) 317.00p -0.24%
Dialight (DIA) 696.50p -0.21%