London midday: Stocks edge higher, markets await Greek debt-swap

7th Mar 2012 11:25

- Admiral jumps 11% as outlook improves.- BATS, CRH, Serco down after going ex-dividend.- Markets await the Greek debt-swap deadline.Following a shaky start, London's FTSE 100 index looked to have found its direction by midday, trading three tenths of a percent point higher following the sell-off seen over the last three days. Markets are nervous ahead of tomorrow's deadline for the crucial Greek debt-swap.Europe is awaiting a final decision this week on the Greek debt restructuring. Private investors have a March 8th deadline to decide if they will accept a debt exchange in which they will be required to take a 53.5% haircut in an agreement that would save Athens about €106bn (£88bn). The Greek government is optimistic that the rate of participation in the bond-swap could reach between 75% and 80%, according to sources cited by the Wall Street Journal. However, this falls short of the 90% participation rate needed to avoid the trigger of collective action clauses (CACs). "In our view, the activation of the CACs is highly likely and following on from that a credit event, triggering CDS payouts," said Citi analyst Mark Schofield.In other news, last night's "Super Tuesday" vote in the US saw Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney win the primary contests in the key state of Ohio, while also winning in Massachusetts, Idaho, Vermont and Virginia. The man who appears to be his main rival, Rick Santorum, hoovered up in Tennessee, Oklahoma and North Dakota. US futures were pointing to a positive start on Wall Street, as stock recover from yesterday's sell-off. Investors will be awaiting an Automatic Data Processing (ADP) payrolls report before the open.ECONOMIC DATAShop price inflation in the UK eased to a 1.2% year-on-year rate of change in February, versus 1.4% the month before, according to the latest BRC-Nielsen survey data.Permanent job placements in the UK rose to a nine-month high in February, according to the latest data released by consultants KPMG-REC. ADMIRAL RACES AHEAD Car insurance giant Admiral surged after deciding to pay a special dividend as it seeks to curb the number of high value bodily injury claims which have dented recent figures. Admiral has revealed that pre-tax profits up 13% on 2011 at £299m with net revenue up 36% at £870.3m. Both those figures beat the consensus forecasts. Nomura did its bit to boost buying after saying that the results give comfort on prospective forecasts, saying that the bodily injury claims trends are appearing to stabilise.British American Tobacco was the heaviest faller after trading without the right to its latest dividend. Other big movers that went ex-dividend this morning include FTSE 100 peers CRH, Serco and Standard Chartered and FTSE 250 stocks TUI Travel, Spirent Communications, Kesa Electricals, Domino Printing Sciences and Renishaw. Banking titan HSBC's sale of peripheral parts of its operations has continued with the sale of its general insurance businesses in Hong Kong, Singapore, Argentina and Mexico. Shares rose moderately, joined by peers Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and Lloyds.Power systems giant Rolls-Royce edged higher after announcing that it will soon begin flight tests of an engine upgrade for the US Air Force's T56 turboprop engine. Miners were providing a lift after their recent poor performance with Kazakhmys, ENRC, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton rising strongly. FTSE 250: COBHAM SURGES AFTER HIKING DIVI Shares in defence technology group Cobham jumped after raising its full-year dividend by a third on the back of strong profits and cash generation in 2011. While revenue fell 3%, the group gave an optimistic outlook for defence spending in the US. Development, environmental and energy resources consultancy RPS Group rose after seeing full-year pre-tax profits come in marginally ahead of expectations. Afren was making gains after well test results at its Okoro East oil discovery, offshore Nigeria, confirmed high quality oil in excellent reservoir sands. Future horizontal production wells at the project will be capable of yielding 4,500-7,000 barrels of oil per day each, the group predicts. BCFTSE 100 - RisersAdmiral Group (ADM) 1,150.00p +10.58%Essar Energy (ESSR) 111.10p +9.35%ICAP (IAP) 391.60p +2.89%ITV (ITV) 85.50p +2.76%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,584.00p +2.52%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 946.50p +2.44%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,446.00p +2.34%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,425.00p +2.30%Schroders (Non-Voting) (SDRC) 1,224.00p +2.17%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,964.00p +2.13%FTSE 100 - FallersBritish American Tobacco (BATS) 3,095.50p -3.01%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,794.00p -1.97%CRH (CRH) 1,262.00p -1.79%Cairn Energy (CNE) 317.10p -1.21%Royal Dutch Shell 'A' (RDSA) 2,238.50p -0.56%BP (BP.) 487.55p -0.52%Xstrata (XTA) 1,120.00p -0.49%Serco Group (SRP) 516.50p -0.48%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,560.00p -0.32%Glencore International (GLEN) 400.05p -0.31%FTSE 250 - RisersCobham (COB) 201.40p +8.11%Homeserve (HSV) 227.70p +6.05%Afren (AFR) 131.80p +4.94%Inmarsat (ISAT) 452.70p +4.50%Centamin (DI) (CEY) 82.55p +4.23%Bodycote (BOY) 400.50p +3.94%Michael Page International (MPI) 460.00p +3.84%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 599.50p +3.45%Drax Group (DRX) 511.00p +3.21%Allied Gold Mining (ALD) 119.20p +3.20%FTSE 250 - FallersTUI Travel (TT.) 187.70p -2.85%Renishaw (RSW) 1,362.00p -2.64%Wood Group (John) (WG.) 692.00p -1.91%Kesa Electricals (KESA) 69.85p -1.76%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 424.50p -1.74%COLT Group SA (COLT) 99.80p -1.67%Perpetual Income & Growth Inv Trust (PLI) 262.50p -1.50%Savills (SVS) 360.10p -1.45%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 14.81p -1.20%Spirent Communications (SPT) 149.60p -1.19%