London midday: Losses pared on talks of progress in Greece

27th Jan 2012 12:06

- Gains pared by midday. - Talks of progress in Greece. - BP falls after Transocean spat.After a sharp decline early on, losses were pared by lunchtime, with the FTSE 100 trading only slightly lower, as talks of progress in Greece helped lift sentiment. European markets on the whole are generally quite subdued this morning following on from the post-Fed rally yesterday which saw London's blue chip index rise over 1%.The Institute of International Finance (IIF), which represents private-sector holders of Greek bonds, has offered to accept a 70% haircut on its debt, according to remarks from Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Josef Ackermann in an interview with German media outlet N-TV. Ackermann described the offer as "attractive" and insisted that everyone has to contribute.The CEO did not comment on the coupon rates for the new Greek bonds in the debt swap. Negotiations were halted last week because the IIF offered a coupon rate of 4% while the European Union (EU), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB) held out for a rate closer to 3.5%. Some reports now say that they could agree on 3.75%. In other news, the fourth quarter Spanish unemployment rate rose to 22.85% from 21.52%, while the total number of jobless people topped the five million mark.NEXT, IMPERIAL HELPED HIGHER BY BROKER COMMENTSNext was a high riser helped by AlphaValue which upgraded the stock from add to buy and lifted the price target from 3,467.6p to 3,481.1p. In other broker news: Imperial Tobacco was in demand after Citi reiterated its buy rating on the cigarette-making giant; while a downgrade was weighing on the share price of hotels group InterContinental after UBS cut its rating from neutral to sell.Oil titan BP was lower after failing to get the US courts to rule wholly in the UK firm's favour regarding the scope of its indemnity obligations to Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig which exploded in April 2010, claiming the lives of 11 people and causing the largest offshore oil spill in US history. The court did rule, however, that BP does not owe Transocean indemnity to the extent Transocean is held liable for punitive damages or civil penalties relating to the US Clean Water Act.Royal Bank of Scotland was making gains despite the controversy surrounding its Stephen Hester's near-£1m bonus. The bank's Chief Executive is to receive a bonus of 3.6 million shares for his performance during 2011, this equates to £963,000 based on the closing price on Wednesday. This is probably the most politically charged pay award amongst all UK listed companies, not least because the Prime Minister has to give his personal approval for the payment.FTSE 250 MOVERS: AFRICAN BARRICK IN TOP SPOTGold miner African Barrick Gold led the risers after hiking its previous resource estimate fourfold for the Tusker deposit at the Nyanzaga Project in Tanzania.Healthcare outsourcing group Synergy fell after saying that while trading has been in line with expectations, it will incur a £2.3m one-off charge after a "re-organisation" in response to macroeconomic risks.Aveva, the Cambridge based engineering technology company, rose after releasing a bullish management statement. The company attempted to put to rest any qualms that it might be suffering similar problems in China to its rival, Invensys.BCFTSE 100 - RisersNext (NXT) 2,651.00p +2.20%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,294.00p +1.82%Carnival (CCL) 1,930.00p +1.53%Barclays (BARC) 225.40p +1.14%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 27.94p +0.98%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 678.00p +0.97%Rolls-Royce Holdings (RR.) 758.50p +0.93%British Land Co (BLND) 502.50p +0.74%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,359.00p +0.74%International Power (IPR) 331.60p +0.73%FTSE 100 - FallersBP (BP.) 468.15p -1.80%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,334.00p -1.69%BT Group (BT.A) 204.30p -1.68%Intertek Group (ITRK) 2,115.00p -1.58%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 730.00p -1.22%Sage Group (SGE) 297.60p -1.20%Wolseley (WOS) 2,247.00p -1.19%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 670.00p -1.18%Aggreko (AGK) 2,115.00p -1.12%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,182.00p -1.01%FTSE 250 - RisersAfrican Barrick Gold (ABG) 513.00p +4.80%Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 239.50p +3.50%Perform Group (PER) 248.20p +3.42%Fenner (FENR) 465.30p +2.92%Misys (MSY) 313.50p +2.69%easyJet (EZJ) 456.60p +2.49%Homeserve (HSV) 300.80p +2.45%Savills (SVS) 334.80p +2.35%Kier Group (KIE) 1,388.00p +2.06%Brewin Dolphin Holdings (BRW) 151.00p +1.96%FTSE 250 - FallersDomino's Pizza UK & IRL (DOM) 457.00p -3.16%Restaurant Group (RTN) 289.90p -2.42%DS Smith (SMDS) 236.00p -2.36%Cobham (COB) 184.70p -2.33%Spirent Communications (SPT) 120.00p -2.12%JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 710.50p -1.86%Kesa Electricals (KESA) 70.10p -1.75%Synergy Health (SYR) 856.50p -1.66%Senior (SNR) 184.80p -1.65%Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) 566.00p -1.57%