AERO.L Share News (AERO)

LONDON (Alliance News) - London share prices have come off their morning lows by midday Tuesday, and US stocks are called for a positive open, following a last-ditch attempt by Brussels to make a deal with Greece to solve its debt crisis.

The FTSE 100 is down 0.5% at 6,587.33, having touched an intraday low of 6,540.52 points. The FTSE 250 is down 0.2% at 17,505,24 points, also recovering from earlier losses. The AIM All-Share is down 0.1% at 754.22.

In Europe, major indices already have turned higher, with the CAC 40 in Paris and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt both up 0.1%.

Greece and its creditors have failed to reach an agreement thus far on a deal to release bailout funds in time for Greece to meet a EUR1.6 billion debt payment to the International Monetary Fund due later Tuesday. Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reportedly said on Monday that his country will not make the payment to the IMF by the deadline.

However, Tsipras received a last minute offer from European leaders, which seeks to solve Greece's bailout crisis, EU sources said. Tsipras would have to accept in writing the last compromise proposal made by Greece's creditors and commit to campaigning for a "yes" vote in a controversial referendum that Athens will hold on the proposal this Sunday, the source said on condition of anonymity.

The offer was made to the Greek prime minister by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on Monday. Tsipras would have to make the commitments in a letter addressed to Juncker, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijssebloem, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande. This could then pave the way for a meeting of eurozone finance ministers, the source said.

Looking to the US open, CMC Makets analyst Jasper Lawler believes investors will buy the dip ahead of some US economic reports, despite the risks to financial stability posed by Greece and Puerto Rico.

"Puerto Rico’s president announcing that the country cannot afford to pay its USD72 billion in debt was a reminder that it’s not just external debt problems that can destabilise US markets," says Lawler. "The United States central government has ruled out a bailout, and the US territory is not a municipality so cannot restructure its debt with formal bankruptcy."

US futures point to a higher open, with the DJIA pointed up 0.6%, the S&P 500 up 0.7%, and the Nasdaq 100 up 0.5%.

In the economic calendar, there are still the US Chicago Purchasing Managers Index due at 1445 BST and consumer confidence figures due at 1500 BST.

"The US Chicago PMI for June is expected to show substantial improvement in June, moving back into expansionary territory to 50.6 from 46.2 in May," writes CMC Market's Lawler. "Consumer confidence is expected to increase again in June from 95.4 to 97.1."

In London, Tesco is the worst performer in the FTSE 100, down 2.4%, after the latest grocery market share data from the Kantar Worldpanel. Tesco and J Sainsbury came in joint second place out of the big four, behind Wm Morrison Supermarkets, in the Kantar data, both experiencing an annual sales decline of 1.3% in the period.

Sainsbury's sales were at GBP4.18 billion, down from GBP4.23 billion a year before, as its market share declined to 16.5% from 16.7%, while Tesco sales fell to GBP7.24 billion from GBP7.34 billion, as its market share dropped to 28.6% from 28.9%.

Morrisons sales rose 0.6% in the 12 weeks to June 21 to GBP2.79 billion from GBP2.77 billion in the same period a year earlier, as its market share increased to 11.0% from 10.9%.

Sainsbury's trades down 1.7%, while Morrisons is down 0.4%.

Meanwhile, Home Retail Group is the best performer in the FTSE 250, up 3.5% after receiving an upgrade to Overweight from Equal-Weight by Morgan Stanley.

In the AIM All-Share, Taihua is up 17%. The Chinese pharmaceutical company doubled its pretax profit in 2014 despite lower revenue, thanks primarily to robust sales of its Forsythia product and due to lower inventory provisioning. It said its pretax profit for the year was CNY6.6 million, up from CNY3.3 million a year earlier, despite revenue falling to CNY50.9 million from CNY52.3 million.

William Sinclair Holdings is down 27%. The company, which makes gardening products, said it is arranging meetings with investors to test demand for a sizeable share placing, while warning that progress on funding is required in the next few weeks. It said it is still considering its strategic options, with the process now beyond the first phase and the company receiving numerous signs of interest, following a review of the business.

Shares in Strat Aero are down 22% after the company said its revenue in the first half of 2015 has been weaker than expected as it published its 2014 results. It said revenue in the year to date has been "considerably lower" than its expectations and said it was difficult to predict how the growth of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, or drone, market will pan out. It said its pretax loss for the year to December 31 was USD1.2 million, on revenue of USD630,685. No comparable figures were provided.

By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com

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