London open: Markets cautious after Greek bond-swap

9th Mar 2012 08:23

- 85.8 per cent of private creditors accept Greek bond-swap.- Miners on the fall, Fresnillo falls after downgrade.- Weir loses out to FLSmidth.It was a tentative start for the FTSE 100 on Friday as news of Greece receiving a high participation rate in its debt-swap deal underwhelmed investors with questions still remaining over the outlook for the debt-laden country. Stocks swung between gains and losses in the opening hour.Greece has announced that 85.8% of its private bondholders have decided to accept a "voluntary" 53.5% haircut on their debt. At the same time Athens has indicated that it plans to implement the collective action clauses (CACs) that will force all non-accepting investors to exchange their debt, thus resulting in a full participation rate of 95.7%. The Greek Finance Ministry stated that €172bn had been tendered in the offer, consisting of €152bn in bonds governed by Greek law (and thus subject to the CACs) and an additional €20bn governed by international law and issued by public companies. In this last case, only 69% of the bondholders accepted the deal, so the Hellenic Republic has decided to extend the deadline on the offer to March 23rd. The question remains as to whether this will be considered a default or not. The International Swaps and Derivates Association (ISDA) will meet this afternoon to discuss the question and to determine whether a credit event has occurred.FRESNILLO FALLS AFTER DOWNGRADESilver and gold miner Fresnillo was the heaviest faller after Deutsche Bank downgraded its rating on the stock from buy to hold and cut its target from 1,925p to 1,875p. Mining peers Kazakhmys, Xstrata, Evraz and ENRC were also out of favour early on.Engineering group Weir was in the red after losing its battle with Danish rival FLSmidth for the takeover of Australian mining equipment firm Ludowici. Among the risers was savings, investments and insurance giant Old Mutual after it saw a 14% increase in adjusted profits in 2011 despite a fall in funds under management and net client cash flow. The firm raised its full-year dividend by 25%.Temporary power and temperature control solutions provider Aggreko rose after seeing strong growth in revenues in 2011 despite going up against tough comparative figures from 2010, a year which saw the FIFA World Cup, the Winter Olympics and the Asian Games. Brewing giant SABMiller fell after announcing that it has lost the import and distribution licence for Corona Extra in Australia. Corona's owner, Grupo Modelo, has withdrawn the concession following SAB's £6.5bn takeover of the original licensee, Foster's, in December 2011. Natixis has downgraded its rating for SABMiller from buy to neutral this morning.In other broker news, Royal Dutch Shell has been downgraded to neutral by Bernstein, while Goldman Sachs has cut its ratings for both Smith & Nephew and BG Group.FTSE 250: LSE SEALS THE DEAL WITH LCH.CLEARNETLongon Stock Exchange (LSE) was the high riser of the morning after saying that it will acquire a majority stake in LCH.Clearnet. The LSE is offering €19 per LCH.Clearnet share, plus LCH.Clearnet shareholders will be allowed to keep the recently announced special dividend of €1. The terms value LCH.Clearnet at €813m (£677m) with the special dividend thrown in. The two parties have been in exclusive talks over a merger since September of last year.Pubs group JD Wetherspoon dropped after revealing a surprise reverse in like-for-like (LFL) sales for the current year. Total sales in the six weeks to March 4th were up 6.1% on the corresponding period of 2011, but that number is boosted by contributions from pubs recently added to the group's estate. LFL sales over the same period were down 0.6% year-on-year, a sharp turnaround from the preceding six-month period, when LFL sales grew 2.1%.BCFTSE 100 - RisersCairn Energy (CNE) 332.20p +2.44%ITV (ITV) 88.20p +1.79%Essar Energy (ESSR) 110.90p +1.74%Old Mutual (OML) 165.00p +1.48%Aggreko (AGK) 2,257.00p +1.44%BT Group (BT.A) 219.30p +1.43%Shire Plc (SHP) 2,235.00p +1.36%Schroders (SDR) 1,570.00p +1.29%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,527.00p +1.26%Polymetal International (POLY) 1,010.00p +1.15%FTSE 100 - FallersFresnillo (FRES) 1,756.00p -3.73%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 947.50p -1.92%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 617.00p -1.59%Evraz (EVR) 395.90p -1.25%Standard Life (SL.) 234.30p -1.22%Admiral Group (ADM) 1,149.00p -1.12%Xstrata (XTA) 1,135.00p -1.05%Glencore International (GLEN) 401.40p -0.91%GKN (GKN) 209.50p -0.90%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 667.50p -0.89%FTSE 250 - RisersLondon Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 968.50p +7.85%Hunting (HTG) 911.00p +6.43%Rathbone Brothers (RAT) 1,263.00p +2.60%Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 35.07p +2.54%William Hill (WMH) 240.90p +2.42%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 323.50p +2.41%Fidelity China Special Situations (FCSS) 85.50p +2.33%Michael Page International (MPI) 487.30p +2.18%Ladbrokes (LAD) 160.50p +2.10%Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 332.60p +1.99%FTSE 250 - FallersAllied Gold Mining (ALD) 118.10p -2.40%BH Global Ltd. USD Shares (BHGU) 11.75 -1.92%Barratt Developments (BDEV) 139.20p -1.90%Gem Diamonds Ltd. (DI) (GEMD) 237.50p -1.86%Bodycote (BOY) 411.10p -1.84%Premier Farnell (PFL) 213.00p -1.62%Supergroup (SGP) 560.00p -1.50%Ashtead Group (AHT) 261.10p -1.47%COLT Group SA (COLT) 99.85p -1.24%Murray Income Trust (MUT) 661.00p -1.20%