London midday: Shares tread water amid Greek political woes

London shares struggled to match the gains made during last week's Santa rally as Greek political turmoil threatened to trigger a fresh bout of Eurozone uncertainty.

The FTSE 100 Index was 7.98 points higher at 6,617.91 just past midday in London after Athens lawmakers failed to elect a new president in a final round of voting on Monday.

It means Greeks will go the polls on 25 January. That could scupper the international bail-out from the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund that it needs to pay its way.

The only candidate in the race, former European Commissioner Stavros Dimas, equalled the result from the second round of voting before Christmas but failed to get the 180 votes needed to become president.

Alastair McCaig at spread-betting firm IG said: “Although this is a specific issue for Greece it will raise fresh fears over the fate of the Eurozone and the timelines for the possible implementation of a European version of QE.

“Next year could see an escalation in the debate over austerity, with the same old north-south divide on what is proportional still raging.”

Miners were spearheading early gains in London, with Fresnillo, Randgold Resources, BHP Billiton and Anglo American leading the sector higher. On Sunday, Xinhua News reported on new regulations from China's central bank which in effect would relax the rules for the calculation of banks' deposits while at the same time waiving some reserve requirements.

On Friday the S&P 500 finished the session up by seven points to 2,089 and the Dow Jones Industrials by 24 points to 18,054. The Nasdaq Composite continued its climb back towards its record early-2000 levels.

Investors were also monitoring the situation in Libya, where on Friday government forces launched air strikes against rebel artillery units which had fired on the Es Sider oil export terminal earlier in the week. At last count the North African country's oil production was running at about 352,000 barrels a day, versus about 850,000 barrels a day reached in October.

BG Group rises after loading first Queensland LNG cargo

Gas outfit BG Group was 3.7p higher at 884.9p after it announced that on 28 December it began loading the first cargo for liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its Queensland Curtis LNG facility onto the Methane Rita Andrea vessel. The second cargo of LNG was scheduled to be loaded onto a carrier which was due to arrive in the first week of January.

The owners of collapsed parcel courier City Link have said they "very much regret" that staff were told of the company's entry into administration on Christmas Day. Better Capital, run by Jon Moulton, said in a statement that the appointment of administrator Ernst & Young was leaked ahead of the planned announcement.

Shares in Smith & Nephew rose 22p to 1195p on the heels of reports last week that US group Stryker Corp. was planning a takeover bid for the British medical-device maker.