London open: Footsie rises with Greece in focus

23rd Jan 2012 08:36

UK stocks rose on Monday with hopes that Greece can reach a deal with its bondholders boosting sentiment early on. The Institute of International Finance (IIF) seems to have hardened its stance in its negotiations with Greece. Charles Dallara, theManaging Director of the IIF, the body which is negotiating on behalf of private sector investors (PSI) in the Greek bond swap, indicated yesterday that private bondholders have made their best offer and that it is now up to the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and the European Union to decide whether the deal is acceptable and whether it will be enough to stave off a default or not.Reports last week suggested that private bondholders were willing to take a haircut of between 65% to 70% as part of a "voluntary" debt swap plan and that the coupon on the new bonds issued would be somewhere between 3% and 4%.CAIRN LEADS THE RISERS IN EARLY TRADINGEdinburgh-based explorer Cairn Energy rose after saying it is to partner with Statoil ASA to help exploit the Pitu block in the Baffin Bay Basin, west of Greenland. Under Cairn's agreement with Statoil, the latter will acquire a working interest of 30.625% in the Pitu licence, subject to the approval of the Greenland Government.However, the firm offered no clue as to whether a tie-up with Rockhopper was on the cards in its trading update. Recent reports claim Cairn has held talks with AIM-listed Rockhopper over the possibility of taking a stake in its Falkland Islands operations. Rockhopper was almost 7% higher this morning.Engineers Weir and IMI were leading the downside after both stocks were hit with broker downgrades. The latter was cut from buy to neutral by UBS, with the broker saying that it finds it difficult to remain bullish on the stock given the third quarter disappointment and a buoyant share price.Tesco was on the up despite rival supermarket Asda announcing that it will create 5,000 jobs and open more stores this year.FTSE 250 MOVERS: RENISHAW, HUNTING PROVIDE A LIFTRenishaw was a high riser on the FTSE 250 after UBS upgraded the precision tool maker from neutral to buy.Oilfield support services provider Hunting rose 4% after saying results for 2011 are set to be above market expectations after a strong finish to the year.Meanwhile, oil firm Afren fell after announcing that despite 2011 average production increasing year-on-year, it was held back by a longer-than-anticipated period of facilities related downtime at the Ebok field in Nigeria due to safety requirements and commissioning work.There is to be a small shake-up at the top at groceries deliverer Ocado after the group's Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Bracey, announced his intention to turn over a new leaf at Michael Page, the recruitment firm. Both stocks were lower.A big mover in the opening minutes was Ithaca Energy which jumped over 18% after confirming that it has received a "confidential, non-binding proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of the company."BCFTSE 100 - RisersCairn Energy (CNE) 297.00p +2.20%BAE Systems (BA.) 319.40p +1.82%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 27.93p +1.79%SABMiller (SAB) 2,364.00p +1.48%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 170.00p +1.43%Essar Energy (ESSR) 124.10p +1.31%Tesco (TSCO) 332.95p +1.20%BP (BP.) 472.00p +0.97%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,580.00p +0.96%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 547.30p +0.92%FTSE 100 - FallersWeir Group (WEIR) 1,880.00p -3.79%IMI (IMI) 864.00p -1.54%Evraz (EVR) 425.60p -1.39%Shire Plc (SHP) 2,098.00p -1.08%Next (NXT) 2,636.00p -0.79%Aggreko (AGK) 2,073.00p -0.77%Xstrata (XTA) 1,071.50p -0.60%InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,310.00p -0.53%Severn Trent (SVT) 1,524.00p -0.52%International Power (IPR) 317.60p -0.47%FTSE 250 - RisersDixons Retail (DXNS) 14.50p +7.17%Renishaw (RSW) 1,140.00p +4.40%Hunting (HTG) 858.50p +4.38%BTG (BGC) 328.00p +3.27%CSR (CSR) 232.50p +2.88%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 481.10p +2.47%Heritage Oil (HOIL) 191.40p +2.24%PayPoint (PAY) 587.00p +1.82%Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 446.80p +1.82%BH Global Ltd. USD Shares (BHGU) 11.95 +1.70%FTSE 250 - FallersRotork (ROR) 1,827.00p -4.25%Afren (AFR) 119.70p -3.93%Ocado Group (OCDO) 84.85p -3.19%International Personal Finance (IPF) 190.10p -2.01%Kesa Electricals (KESA) 70.10p -1.96%Domino's Pizza UK & IRL (DOM) 452.40p -1.65%QinetiQ Group (QQ.) 132.90p -1.56%Centamin (DI) (CEY) 90.75p -1.36%TR Property Inv Trust (TRY) 150.10p -1.31%Cape (CIU) 381.00p -1.30%