London open: Stocks slip as Greek deadline looms

6th Feb 2012 08:35

UK stocks fell on Monday morning, pulling back following the strong end to last week, with Greece once again in focus as government talks enter a critical stage.After a meeting last night between the three parties of Greece's coalition government, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos announced that they had agreed on "basic issues". However, Greek paper ekathimerini has reported that the two smaller party heads remain opposed to excessive austerity and that talks will continue today. Negotiations continue to crawl forward and Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos described the difficulties: "The gap between the successful completion of procedures and a deadlock, which could be accidental or due to a misunderstanding, is very small. We are on the razor's edge," he said. Greek leaders meet again this morning with an 11:00 deadline in Athens to reach a final deal. According to Barclays Capital analysts, "the economic outlook in the euro area is still fragile and the risk of a disorderly outcome from Greece has increased following Greek party leaders opposition to the Trokia demands for new austerity measures at the same time as a lack of agreement over the Greek PSI remains."RANDGOLD RISE AFTER Q4 RESULTSRandgold Resources, the west Africa-focused gold miner, saw sales in the final three months of last year rise 1.3% over the the previous quarter. Total sales for the three months to the end of December were $314m compared to $310m between July and September. Insurance group Admiral was a heavy faller, pulling back after Friday's strong rise following the announcement that it had extended its existing UK car insurance reinsurance partnerships with Hannover Re, Mapfre Re, New Re and Swiss Re until 2014. Nevertheless, shares are still some 12% up over the last week.UK telecoms giant Vodafone rose early on after calling off a potential "business combination" with Greek telecoms group Wind Hellas. Airlines was were under pressure as the weekend's snow storm across the UK forced cancellations at many airports. British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines, easyJet and Ryanair were in the red in the opening minutes.ON THE FTSE 250...Budget airline easyJet was lower, with the weather not helping, after revealing that passenger numbers nudged 0.4% lower in January. While the load factor improved slightly to 81.9%, it was well under the 12-month rolling average load factor of 87.7%.Natural resources royalties company Anglo Pacific fell after saying it has agreed to a proposal to buy 50% of Red Rock Resources' iron ore royalty in the Mount Ida magnetite project, western Australia.Oil and gas exploration and production firm Premier Oil was in the red despite reporting that the East Fyne Appraisal well in the North Sea, which it operates, is being plugged and abandoned.Northern Russia-focused oil group Exillon Energy saw shares fall after agreeing a new $100m loan facility, doubling the size of its previous credit line. The money will be used to finance drilling and infrastructure work at its two main sites in Timan-Pechora and West Siberia. Business events organiser and publisher UBM rose after selling off its UK agriculture and medical general practitioner magazines, representing a "further significant step in the transformation of UBM into a set of Events and other B2B marketing, communications, and data services businesses."BCFTSE 100 - RisersRandgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,540.00p +1.89%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 34.92p +1.54%BP (BP.) 487.00p +0.52%British Land Co (BLND) 505.50p +0.50%Polymetal International (POLY) 1,170.00p +0.43%Imperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,399.00p +0.42%Land Securities Group (LAND) 690.00p +0.36%Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,269.00p +0.35%Vodafone Group (VOD) 175.55p +0.26%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 341.90p +0.23%FTSE 100 - FallersAdmiral Group (ADM) 989.00p -4.72%Glencore International (GLEN) 461.80p -4.30%Essar Energy (ESSR) 130.80p -2.32%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,329.00p -2.21%Xstrata (XTA) 1,256.00p -2.10%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 185.90p -2.00%ITV (ITV) 77.85p -1.89%Aviva (AV.) 371.20p -1.54%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,378.00p -1.50%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,440.00p -1.44%FTSE 250 - RisersSupergroup (SGP) 709.00p +7.10%New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 523.50p +3.25%Big Yellow Group (BYG) 300.90p +2.35%KCOM Group (KCOM) 74.60p +1.84%Gem Diamonds Ltd. (DI) (GEMD) 226.00p +1.71%Grainger (GRI) 105.20p +1.64%Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 330.00p +1.54%TR Property Inv Trust Sigma Shares (TRYS) 66.00p +1.38%Phoenix Group Holdings (DI) (PHNX) 592.00p +1.37%Senior (SNR) 186.80p +1.14%FTSE 250 - FallersWilliam Hill (WMH) 224.50p -4.14%Bumi (BUMI) 818.00p -3.76%Shanks Group (SKS) 106.70p -3.44%Ocado Group (OCDO) 105.00p -3.05%Petropavlovsk (POG) 787.00p -2.66%easyJet (EZJ) 464.00p -2.54%Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) 673.50p -2.46%Hays (HAS) 83.85p -2.22%Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 43.84p -2.12%Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 1,172.00p -2.09%