London midday: Bond jitters weigh on stocks

UK stocks edged lower following recent volatility in sovereign debt markets and amid mixed reports on the progress made at a meeting between Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the head of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker.

As of 12:21 the FTSE 100 was lower by 95.23 points to 6,855.23.

On Wednesday, Dutch and French 10-year bond yields jumped by 16 and 15 basis points respectively, even as those on Greek debt of similar maturity ended the session 62 basis points tighter.

In his press conference following Wednesday's meeting of the European Central Bank's governing council Mario Draghi said investors would have to get used to higher volatility in bond markets.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the yield on German bunds bounded higher by a combined 32 basis points to end at 0.90% - the largest two-day rise since 1998.

As of 12:21 the yield on the 10-year benchmark German bund was one basis point higher at 0.91%, after having started the day at their highest since October 2014.

Greece is set to pay a €330m tranche of debt falling due on Friday to the International Monetary Fund, according to Market News International.

That follows media reports over recent days that the Washington-based lender is open to the possibility of allowing the Mediterranean country to bundle all its payments into one, to be made at the end of June, in a bid to buy some more time for Athens to reach an agreement with its creditors.

According to Sky News, there have been reports of heavy withdrawals from ATMs in Athens in recent days.

The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee maintained its benchmark policy rate at 0.50% and the size of its asset purchase programme unchanged at £375bn.

Kingfisher, easyJet lead gains on Footsie

Kingfisher was seeing the sharpest gains following an upgrade out of Bank of America-Merrill Lynch to neutral from underperform.

Low-cost airline easyJet said it carried nearly 6.5m passengers last month, up 7.2% from 6.05m in May 2014. The load factor, which is a gauge of how many seats were actually occupied by passengers on flights, rose 2.2 percentage points to 91.6% from May 2014.

Petrofac successfully extended and amended a syndicated revolving five-year credit facility. The size of the funding facility was maintained by lenders at $1.2bn and would run to 2020, with the oil explorer being granted the option to extend it twice, for an additional year each time – if its creditors consent.

Sports Direct International promoted Matt Pearson to acting chief financial officer following the departure of its previous CFO 18 months ago. “The odd thing is that his role is still said to be on an interim basis, implying that the search for a permanent FD goes on…” independent retail analyst Nick Bubb said.

Medical technology group Smith&Nephew chose to remove one of its hip devices from the market, based on recent performance data. Analysis of the component, which is part of its Birmingham Hip Resurfacing System, shows that revision rates associated with men requiring a particular size, and with all women patients, exceed the current benchmark established by the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Platinum and palladium refiner Johnson Matthey posted a 22% rise in fiscal 2015 pre-tax profit to £495.8m, boosted by the £69.7m sale of the Gold and Silver Refining business in March 2015.

NMC Health completed its acquisition of Americare Group, which provides in-home healthcare services in the United Arab Emirates, ahead of schedule. Excluding synergies, the transaction is expected to be accretive with a positive effect on NMC's consolidated margins and yield an attractive return on invested capital (ROIC), it said.

Market Movers
techMARK 3,265.40 -0.99%
FTSE 100 6,855.19 -1.37%
FTSE 250 18,098.64 -0.90%

FTSE 100 - Risers
Kingfisher (KGF) 373.50p +1.47%
easyJet (EZJ) 1,596.00p +0.89%
Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,141.00p +0.44%
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 178.20p +0.06%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
National Grid (NG.) 871.00p -4.86%
Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,355.00p -4.58%
WPP (WPP) 1,505.00p -3.46%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,016.00p -3.05%
Fresnillo (FRES) 726.50p -2.68%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,629.00p -2.59%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,392.00p -2.38%
Glencore (GLEN) 282.15p -2.37%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,335.50p -2.30%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 531.50p -2.21%

FTSE 250 - Risers
PayPoint (PAY) 1,074.00p +4.88%
Ladbrokes (LAD) 125.10p +2.29%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 346.00p +1.97%
BTG (BTG) 708.00p +1.43%
Hiscox Limited (CDI) (HSX) 869.50p +1.40%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 801.50p +1.20%
Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 533.00p +1.14%
Dechra Pharmaceuticals (DPH) 997.00p +1.06%
Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 5,735.00p +0.97%
Fisher (James) & Sons (FSJ) 1,316.00p +0.92%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 278.30p -9.08%
Zoopla Property Group (WI) (ZPLA) 259.70p -5.43%
Foxtons Group (FOXT) 254.90p -4.75%
Pets at Home Group (PETS) 269.40p -3.79%
Synthomer (SYNT) 336.60p -3.75%
Bank of Georgia Holdings (BGEO) 1,884.00p -3.63%
Laird (LRD) 395.00p -3.54%
Evraz (EVR) 161.10p -3.19%
Lonmin (LMI) 139.70p -3.12%
Polymetal International (POLY) 542.00p -3.04%