London open: Sterling and Greenback jump versus euro

Sterling was moving sharply higher versus the European single currency on Thursday morning, alongside the US dollar, as the market acknowledged the relatively greater scope for interest rate rises in both the UK and the US.

That came ahead of a speech by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, scheduled for 19:00 BST.

As of 08:52 London's top-flight index was 24.22 points higher at 6,777.97 and the FTSE 250 up by another 75.85 points to 17.712.93.

Overnight, Wall Street took a breather after four straights days of gains, as the strong US dollar weighed on oil and commodities prices more generally.

The main equity benchmarks in the Eurozone were all registering gains of over 1% on average on Thursday morning, egged on by the drop in the euro to 1.09 versus the Greenback.

Read more: Europe open - equities gain as Greek parliament approves austerity measures

Greek lawmakers overwhelmingly voted overnight to approve the package of reforms demanded by Brussels in exchange for further aid, so all eyes will now turn to the European Central Bank.

Following last night’s vote in Athens the ECB will decide later today whether or not to increase crisis funding for Greek lenders. It may also announce a reduction in the ‘haircut’ it applies on the collateral those banks provide in exchange, some analysts had speculated over recent days.

Euro area integrity damaged

That comes amid an increased focus among Eurozone officials regarding just how much aid or debt forgiveness Greece is likely to require to be able to remain inside the euro area.

"The integrity of the Eurozone has probably been damaged rather than strengthened by the latest negotiations," analysts at Exane BNP said in a research note sent to clients.

"Soft debt restructuring is likely to occur as of the first ESM programme review, but a notional haircut has been ruled out. However, in our view, achieving debt sustainability through soft debt restructuring alone will be very challenging."

Temporary Grexit might be best

Speaking to Germany’s Deutschlandfunk radio, Schaeuble objected to a haircut on the nominal value of Greece’s debt, which many observers say would run into legal obstacles as it would be considered ‘monetary financing’.

A ‘haircut’ is incompatible with the country’s continued membership of the euro, he said, adding “but this would perhaps be the better way for Greece".

Companies news

UK communications regulator Ofcom has cited a break-up of BT as one of a range of possible measures to improve competitiveness in the digital communications market. The regulator said separating Openreach, BT's infrastructure division, from the main group "could deliver competition or wider benefits for end users" and "would remove BT’s underlying incentive to discriminate against competitors".

Dixons Carphone posted a 21% rise in pre-tax profit in its final results and said its integration was progressing well. For the 13 months to 2 May 2015, pre-tax profit came in at £381m from £316m last year, on revenue of £9.9bn, up 6% from 2014 on a like-for-like basis. The numbers were better than analysts had expected.

Imperial Tobacco is setting out plans to sell a further stake in its Spanish logistics unit Cia. de Distribution Integral Logista Holdings SA, Bloomberg reported.

Credit services company Experian said full year expectations were unchanged, but warned of currency headwinds in an update. The FTSE 100 firm said in a first quarter update group organic revenue growth was 3% at constant exchange rates, but at actual exchange rates total revenue was down 6%. Experian said the difference related to foreign exchange movements against the US dollar.

Australian miner Rio Tinto scaled back its iron ore targets, citing weather disruption as impacting production. In a second quarter update Rio Tinto said iron ore production was 9% higher compared to the same quarter in 2014 and 7% above the first quarter of 2015.

Residential developer Telford Homes said it expected strong demand for London housing after it reported forward sales of more than half its development pipeline. The home builder said the total value of all forward sales secured and due for completion in the year to 31 March 2016 onwards exceeded £620 million, more than three and a half times the revenue reported last year. Its development pipeline through to 2019 remained at about £1.1bn.

Market Movers
techMARK 3,188.44 +0.34%
FTSE 100 6,780.39 +0.39%
FTSE 250 17,726.23 +0.51%

FTSE 100 - Risers
Pearson (PSON) 1,249.00p +1.71%
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 2,738.00p +1.41%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,616.00p +1.38%
St James's Place (STJ) 991.50p +1.28%
Hammerson (HMSO) 667.00p +1.21%
Shire Plc (SHP) 5,505.00p +1.19%
Wolseley (WOS) 4,354.00p +1.16%
Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,069.00p +1.14%
Schroders (SDR) 3,203.00p +1.14%
Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,322.00p +1.07%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
G4S (GFS) 270.10p -0.92%
Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,564.00p -0.89%
Sports Direct International (SPD) 728.50p -0.82%
Anglo American (AAL) 869.50p -0.56%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,086.00p -0.39%
Fresnillo (FRES) 674.00p -0.37%
BG Group (BG.) 1,073.50p -0.33%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,230.50p -0.24%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 653.00p -0.23%
BT Group (BT.A) 468.65p -0.17%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Grafton Group Units (GFTU) 733.00p +2.66%
RPC Group (RPC) 677.50p +2.19%
Card Factory (CARD) 324.10p +2.08%
Just Eat (JE.) 440.00p +2.02%
Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 141.70p +1.94%
Bank of Georgia Holdings (BGEO) 2,000.00p +1.73%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 909.50p +1.73%
SIG (SHI) 205.60p +1.73%
Diploma (DPLM) 798.00p +1.59%
Derwent London (DLN) 3,697.00p +1.57%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Allied Minds (ALM) 480.00p -5.88%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 412.80p -2.23%
Evraz (EVR) 116.10p -1.69%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 296.90p -1.36%
Kaz Minerals (KAZ) 198.50p -1.34%
Restaurant Group (RTN) 685.00p -1.01%
Worldwide Healthcare Trust (WWH) 2,035.00p -0.73%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 6,355.00p -0.70%
Ophir Energy (OPHR) 114.40p -0.69%
NB Global Floating Rate Income Fund Ltd GBP (NBLS) 97.10p -0.67%