Market overview: Oil drops as crude stockpiles reach record high

1530: Oil prices have dropped after data from the EIA showed that US crude inventories rose 4.87m bbls in the week ended 5 February, more than the 3.75m increase expected. Stockpiles reached a new high of 417.9m bbls, the highest since records began in 1982, pushing the price of Brent down 3.2% to $54.60/bbl.

1358: Tesco's banking arm is planning to grow its share of the personal current account market significantly, the retailer's chief, Benny Higgins, told Reuters in an interview.

1353: BAE Systems has been awarded a contract by the US Army Space &Missile Command that has an initial size of $11.8m.

1302: The President of the Federal Reserve bank of Dallas, Richard Fisher, has reportedly said that inflation easing would not push back an interest rate hike.

1025: The price range for Henderson Group's initial public offering of John Laing has reportedly been reduced to between 195p and 200p.

1015: Sterling has risen to its strongest level versus the euro since early 2008. The currency pair climbed to the seven-year high of 0.7399 as traders continue to angst about Greek debt and a possible Grexit from the euro zone. The euro is also down 0.07% against the dollar to 1.1313. The Eurogroup meeting today comes after Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras comfortably won a confidence vote in parliament the previous day, assuring MPs that “there is no going back”. Market analysts expect a stream of leaks about the finance ministers meeting to lead the markets a merry dance as the morning continues.

0919: UK stocks are holding lower despite overnight gains on Wall Street. Sky is at the bottom of the pile after it and BT paid a whopping £5.13bn to win the rights to broadcast Premier League matches in the UK. Tullow Oil is the second biggest percentage point loser on the Footsie after suspending its final dividend for 2014. GKN has been downgraded by RBC to underperform from sector perform. Meanwhile, HSBC has lowered its view on shares of Schroders to underweight from overweight. FTSE 100 down 4 to 6,825.49.

0905: The FTSE and Germany's Dax are marginally in positive territory, unlike most of their European peers, as markets gear up for the outcome of the critical emergency Eurogroup meeting of euro zone finance ministers, which aims to thrash out some sort of temporary plan to deal with Greece's debts. Yesterday saw contradictory rumours denying or confirming a six-month bridge plan to allow the new government time to deal with its finances. The FTSE was throwing off the losses from companies such as Tullow, which suspended its dividend, and Sky, which last night was revealed to have been forced by rival BT to hugely increase its spending on Premier League football rights.