London open: UK stocks rise ahead of pivotal Eurogroup meeting on Greece

UK stocks opened with small gains on Wednesday morning ahead of another Eurogroup meeting, as officials hope to secure desperately-needed bailout funds for Greece.

The FTSE 100 was up 0.22% at 6,849.80 early on, rising for the fifth consecutive session. The index has not closed above this mark since 4 June.

Eurozone finance ministers are to hold their third Eurogroup summit in less than a week on Wednesday evening to talk over the tax and spending proposals put forward by Athens at the weekend.

Ahead of the summit, Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras is to travel to Brussels to discuss his plans in emergency meetings with EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, ECB president Mario Draghi and IMF head Christine Lagarde.

However, concerns remain over Tsipras’s proposal to raise €8bn over the next two years, given the potential impact of a squeeze on pensioners, consumers and corporations in an economy already in recession.

“Many believe that tax increases in particular are futile unless the Tsipras’s government can actually collect the taxes – something that has played a major part in engineering the current state of affairs,” said analysts at Accendo Markets.

These worries were reflected on Greek stock markets on Wednesday morning, with shares down nearly 2.5% early on.

There will also be some economic data for investors to sink their teeth into during the session, including IFO German business confidence surveys, UK mortgage lending figures and US mortgage applications.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department will also release its updated estimate of first-quarter US gross domestic product growth during the session. Economists broadly expect revised figures to show an annualised 0.2% decline in GDP for the first three months of 2015, compared with the 0.7% contraction originally reported.

Blue chips rise

Stocks in the supermarket, oil and mining sectors were providing a lift in London in early deals. Among the top performers were grocer rivals Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, oil majors Shell and BP, and metal producers Anglo American and BHP Billiton.

Sainsbury’s, in particular, was boosted by a Societe Generale ratings increase to ‘buy’ and target price upgrade from 260p to 315p, pointing to a resilient profile and attractive valuation.

Retailer Next also rose after Barclays Capital lifted its recommendation to ‘overweight’ and lifted its target price from 7,400p to 9,000p.

Chemicals company Elementis saw shares drop sharply after warning that its full-year earnings per share will miss market expectations due to a significant reduction in oil projects in North America.

Old Mutual edged higher after completing the acquisition of a further 37.3% shareholding in UAP Holdings, bringing its total interest in the investment, retirement, and insurance group to 60.7%.

Market Movers
techMARK 3,207.75 -0.21%
FTSE 100 6,849.80 +0.22%
FTSE 250 17,950.64 -0.26%

FTSE 100 - Risers
Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 184.40p +2.56%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 275.70p +2.41%
Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 1,887.50p +1.72%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 1,920.00p +1.69%
BG Group (BG.) 1,106.00p +1.61%
Anglo American (AAL) 1,011.00p +1.43%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,374.50p +1.36%
SABMiller (SAB) 3,439.50p +1.31%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,793.00p +1.25%
Tesco (TSCO) 218.35p +0.99%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Sage Group (SGE) 538.50p -1.91%
Barratt Developments (BDEV) 623.00p -1.50%
GKN (GKN) 354.30p -1.23%
Persimmon (PSN) 2,006.00p -1.18%
Sky (SKY) 1,070.00p -0.93%
Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 192.40p -0.82%
SSE (SSE) 1,626.00p -0.79%
Mondi (MNDI) 1,420.00p -0.77%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 965.00p -0.72%
Capita (CPI) 1,258.00p -0.71%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Genus (GNS) 1,471.00p +2.01%
Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 421.00p +1.79%
Aldermore Group (ALD) 297.20p +1.78%
Poundland Group (PLND) 320.70p +1.65%
Shawbrook Group (SHAW) 385.00p +1.58%
Telecom Plus (TEP) 862.50p +1.47%
Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group (JLT) 1,037.00p +1.17%
Vectura Group (VEC) 182.00p +1.11%
Fidessa Group (FDSA) 2,230.00p +1.09%
Alent (ALNT) 374.00p +1.08%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Elementis (ELM) 275.10p -11.83%
Evraz (EVR) 130.20p -6.80%
Ladbrokes (LAD) 135.10p -3.50%
Hunting (HTG) 642.00p -3.31%
Nostrum Oil & Gas (NOG) 555.00p -2.63%
Allied Minds (ALM) 558.00p -2.11%
Just Eat (JE.) 415.00p -2.10%
Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,333.00p -1.83%
Jimmy Choo (CHOO) 157.00p -1.81%
Woodford Patient Capital Trust (WPCT) 112.50p -1.66%