London open: Stocks flat after Eurogroup meeting

10th Jul 2012 08:47

- Eurogroup gives Spain extra time- Chinese trade surplus at three-year high- M&S maintains guidance despite LFL sales fallingThe Footsie opened broadly flat on Tuesday morning with investors digesting the the developments from yesterday's Eurogroup meeting.Eurozone finance ministers decided to give Madrid an extra year to reach its deficit target. The country's deficit target for 2012 has been raised from 5.3% to 6.3% of gross domestic product (GDP). Furthermore, the Eurogroup has approved that the recapitalisation of Spanish banks occur via the EFSF (temporary bailout fund) until the ESM (permanent bailout fund) becomes available. Out of the promised €100bn, €30bn could be ready as early as the end of the month. "Despite this being a positive move in Spain, there are still many issues. The biggest at the moment being Spain and Italy's borrowing costs," said analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari. Spanish 10-year bond yield jumped back above 7.0% yesterday."While there are still so many details to be agreed in relation to the new measures, concerns are unlikely to ease in the near future. And last night saw no progress made on the agreement to use bailout funds to drive down spiralling debt costs," Erlam said.Chinese import growth slowed from 12.7% to 6.3% in June, below expectations of an 11.3% increase. Meanwhile, export growth slowed from 15.3% to 11.3%, above the 9% rise expected. Lower-than-expected imports pushed China's trade surplus to a three-year high.FTSE 100: M&S rises after Q1 resultsFirst-quarter like-for-like (LFL) sales took a tumble at High Street giant Marks and Spencer, though the food business held up well, and full-year guidance remains unchanged.Mining stocks were out of favour early on after the worse-than-expected import data from China. Fresnillo, Antofagasta and Rio Tinto were falling early on.Utilities group SSE edged higher after Investec upgraded its rating on the stock from 'hold' to 'buy' and raised its target price from 1,226p to 1,479p to "reflect our increased confidence that SSE will now deliver significant value from its capital investment."Catering giant Compass was lower after sector peer Sodexo saw growth slow in the third quarter.FTSE 250: SIG warns of challenging second halfSIG, the building products distributor, fell after saying it was buffeted by bad weather and a weak euro in the first half, with more challenges ahead in the second. The firm expects its six month figures to be broadly flat in constant currency terms, but said that total sales in the first half fell by nearly 4% in sterling terms. Iron ore producer Ferrexpo rose after seeing pellet production rise in the second quarter, though year-to-date production is down year-on-year because of lower availability of third party concentrate.Mining peer Centamin was also higher after achieving record production in its second quarter of 67,422 ounces of gold, a 40% increase on the second quarter of 2011 and a 37% improvement on the preceding quarter.Online gaming firm bwin.party dropped after revealing that it has been hit by weak poker revenues and the lack of shock results at the Euro 2012 football championship.FTSE 100 - RisersBAE Systems (BA.) 304.50p +2.56%Amec (AMEC) 1,040.00p +1.96%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,459.00p +1.74%Experian (EXPN) 971.50p +1.62%Evraz (EVR) 245.10p +1.45%Kingfisher (KGF) 272.40p +1.38%Vedanta Resources (VED) 908.00p +1.17%WPP (WPP) 804.00p +1.13%Prudential (PRU) 736.50p +0.96%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,267.00p +0.96%FTSE 100 - FallersCompass Group (CPG) 648.50p -3.14%GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) 1,459.50p -2.44%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,453.00p -1.42%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,082.00p -1.19%ARM Holdings (ARM) 490.20p -1.15%Meggitt (MGGT) 400.30p -0.89%AstraZeneca (AZN) 2,894.00p -0.87%BT Group (BT.A) 214.40p -0.79%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,009.50p -0.79%Whitbread (WTB) 2,023.00p -0.74%FTSE 250 - RisersAfren (AFR) 110.60p +5.53%Ocado Group (OCDO) 71.95p +4.58%Centamin (DI) (CEY) 69.00p +3.76%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 468.80p +2.92%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 35.22p +2.86%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 204.70p +2.56%Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 142.10p +2.45%Carpetright (CPR) 670.00p +2.13%Interserve (IRV) 324.00p +2.11%Salamander Energy (SMDR) 172.50p +1.77%FTSE 250 - FallersSIG (SHI) 89.30p -7.03%Avocet Mining (AVM) 68.65p -5.64%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 102.00p -5.38%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 39.72p -4.50%Balfour Beatty (BBY) 299.70p -3.63%Rank Group (RNK) 118.70p -2.86%Filtrona PLC (FLTR) 461.30p -2.68%F&C Asset Management (FCAM) 80.60p -2.30%Essar Energy (ESSR) 115.60p -2.20%Fenner (FENR) 363.00p -2.13%BC