London open: Stocks rise as Greece creditors agree to unlock fresh bailout funds

London stocks rose on Wednesday after the eurozone finance ministers agreed to unlock €10bn in bailout funds.

Following an 11-hour meeting in Brussels, eurozone ministers and the International Monetary Fund came to a deal to release fresh loans to Greece after agreeing the nation had met its obligations.

The IMF also signalled that it could join the bailout by the end of 2016.

A report showing an improvement in German consumer confidence also gave the market a boost. GfK’s forward-looking consumer sentiment index unexpectedly rose to 9.8 in June from 9.7 the previous month.

The IFO’s German business confidence index rose to 107.7 in May from 106.6, beating estimates of 106.8.

Still to come, the US house price index at 1400 BST, Markit’s US services purchasing managers’ index at 1445 BST and government data on US weekly crude inventories at 1530 BST.

Among corporate stocks, Marks & Spencer’s shares plunged as the retailer posted an 18.5% drop in full year pre-tax profits and as chief executive Steve Rowe announced plans to lower clothing prices which may hit short-term profit.

Intertek was also in the red after saying its resource-related business continued to suffer from challenging markets in the first four months of the year.

Royal Mail gained after Ofcom decided against imposing new price controls on the postal service’s wholesale or retail products following a review of the regulation of the company.

Serco Group jumped after the outsourcing company said it expects underlying trading profit for 2016 to be ahead of current market forecasts following a stronger-than-anticipated start to the year.

Market Movers

FTSE 100 (UKX) 6,260.54 0.66%
FTSE 250 (MCX) 17,211.35 0.44%
techMARK (TASX) 3,114.04 0.50%

FTSE 100 - Risers

Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 252.20p 2.81%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 443.15p 2.05%
London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 2,727.00p 1.87%
Royal Mail (RMG) 530.00p 1.73%
CRH (CRH) 2,083.00p 1.61%
ITV (ITV) 220.10p 1.57%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 73.50p 1.49%
Aviva (AV.) 456.30p 1.45%
Standard Life (SL.) 343.00p 1.30%
Legal & General Group (LGEN) 239.50p 1.27%

FTSE 100 - Fallers

Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 408.30p -8.19%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 3,210.00p -2.64%
Next (NXT) 5,415.00p -1.72%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 207.60p -1.28%
Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,810.00p -1.27%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 593.00p -1.08%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,030.00p -1.06%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,128.00p -0.75%
Bunzl (BNZL) 2,028.00p -0.69%
Associated British Foods (ABF) 2,928.00p -0.58%

FTSE 250 - Risers

Serco Group (SRP) 101.80p 11.26%
Paysafe Group (PAYS) 414.50p 6.34%
BGEO Group (BGEO) 2,640.00p 5.60%
Regus (RGU) 315.00p 3.82%
Polypipe Group (PLP) 325.00p 3.17%
National Express Group (NEX) 347.90p 2.99%
Pennon Group (PNN) 864.00p 2.67%
Tullow Oil (TLW) 248.30p 2.60%
Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 307.30p 2.43%
Virgin Money Holdings (UK) (VM.) 364.60p 2.33%

FTSE 250 - Fallers

AO World (AO.) 165.60p -5.37%
Stagecoach Group (SGC) 243.10p -5.33%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 103.30p -2.55%
DFS Furniture (DFS) 307.30p -2.32%
Jimmy Choo (CHOO) 114.00p -2.06%
OneSavings Bank (OSB) 310.40p -1.96%
Softcat (SCT) 317.80p -1.82%
Card Factory (CARD) 364.80p -1.67%
Acacia Mining (ACA) 316.30p -1.62%
Pendragon (PDG) 40.80p -1.62%