Greek Hiatus hits Footsie

Wednesday 21 November 2012

The EU's failure to agree a bail out deal for Greece hindered progress on London's leading shares index today.

The FTSE 100 Index was flat at 5752 after eurozone finance ministers were unable to reach a deal to give Greece the next tranche of its emergency aid and will now meet again next week.

Sentiment was not helped by worse-than-expected UK public finance figures, which revealed £8.6 billion of borrowing in October - up £2.7 billion on a year earlier.The pound was higher against the euro at 1.24 as uncertainty weakened the single currency. Sterling was also up against the US dollar at 1.59.Among stocks, platinum refiner Johnson Matthey was the biggest faller on the FTSE 100 after it reported a 6% drop in half-year profits following a fall in metal prices and warned its second half performance was unlikely to improve as trading in some markets had worsened. Shares fell 135p to 2190p - a decline of 6%.Compass - the world's biggest catering company - narrowed early session share falls seen after disappointment at its full-year results, despite news of a 7% rise in underlying pre-tax profits to £1.09 billion. Shares later stood 9.5p lower at 699.5p.Mining giant Xstrata made further gains after shareholders yesterday finally approved its multi-billion pound merger with Glencore International after months of setbacks. Xstrata, which rose yesterday, added another 10.4p to 997p.Car parts and bicycle retailer Halfords was lower in the FTSE 250 Index, down 1% or 2.8p to 342.2p, following interims revealing a 23.4% slump in underlying pre-tax profits to £41.9 million despite a second quarter sales recovery.Newspaper stocks were in the spotlight after the creation of a new regional newspaper company was announced - called Local World - which will buy Dail Mail and General Trust's Northcliffe Media business.DMGT, which will receive £52.5 million for the division and a 38.7% shareholding in the new group, edged 1p higher to 474p.Trinity Mirror, which will also take a 20% shareholding in Local World, rose 1% or 1p to 80.3p.JD Sports Fashion was also moving higher, up 1% or 6.5p to 716.5p in the FTSE 250, after reporting a pick up in third quarter like-for-like sales to 1.5% from 1.1% in the first half.The biggest FTSE 100 risers were BG Group up 29p at 1060p, United Utilities ahead 12.5p at 671.5p, Imperial Tobacco up 44p at 2472p and British Land ahead 9p at 524p.The biggest FTSE 100 fallers were Johnson Matthey down 135p at 2190p, Vedanta Resources off 26p at 1057p, Eurasian Natural Resources down 6p at 269p and Kingfisher off 5.9p at 272p.

Contextual targeting label:

Finance

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Greek Hiatus hits Footsie

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED