Barclays Share News (BARC)

UK stocks were making gains in early trading on Wednesday with sentiment being lifted by improving developments in Greece.Yesterday evening, S&P upgraded its rating for Greece from 'selective default' to 'B-minus'. The yield on a 10-year Greek bond was down 13 basis points at 12.7% this morning. S&P said: "The upgrade reflects our view of the strong determination of Eurozone member states to preserve Greek membership. [...] The outlook on the long-term rating is stable, balancing our view of the government's commitment to a fiscal and structural adjustment against the economic and political challenges of doing so.""European equities are starting the day out on positive note this morning managing to hold on to yesterday's gain on back of continuing optimism that US budget negotiations are gaining speed and that a compromise will be reached before the end of the year," said Markus Huber, the head of German HNW trading at ETX Capital. "Furthermore giving markets a lift are expectations that the Bank of Japan will be announcing further stimulus measures tomorrow when their two day meeting concludes," he said.The minutes from the latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting are due out at 09:30 this morning, with markets waiting to hear the reasons behind the Bank of England's (BoE) decision to hold rates and quantitative easing (QE). The MPC voted on December 6th to maintain the official Bank Rate at 0.5% and its current asset purchase programme at £375bn. FTSE 100: Banking stocks provide a lift early onBanking peers RBS, Lloyds and Barclays were among the best performers in the opening hour, joined by building material group CRH which was benefitting from an upgrade by Deutsche Bank to 'buy'.Heading the other way was distribution and outsourcing firm Bunzl after buying McCordick Glove & Safety based near Toronto, Canada, and Atlas Health Care in Adelaide, Australia. The news comes as the group said that group revenue growth in 2012 is expected to be 6% at constant exchange rates.Home improvement retail group Kingfisher has announced that its Chief Operating Officer (COO) Euan Sutherland is to leave the company next year to become head of The Co-operative Group after just a couple of months on the board.Advertising and media group WPP gained after selling a freehold property at 285 Madison Avenue in New York for $189.24m.United Utilities was in the red after going ex-dividend, along with Burberry.FTSE 250: Vesuvius drops after demergerVesuvius´s, previously known as Cookson, is plummeting after announcing that the demerger of its Performance Materials division to Alent has become effective.Berendsen, the European textile maintenance company, gained after saying that trading continues to be in line with expectations and that it expects to report "good" year-on-year progress for 2012.Oil and gas producer Salamander Energy rose after it signed two new borrowing facilities together totalling $350m, designed to extend the maturity of the group's financing, simplify Salamander's borrowing structure and lower its cost of debt.FTSE 100 - RisersLloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 47.99p +1.81%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 310.50p +1.77%Old Mutual (OML) 178.10p +1.71%Anglo American (AAL) 1,922.50p +1.48%Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,535.50p +1.42%Aviva (AV.) 381.00p +1.38%Wood Group (John) (WG.) 738.50p +1.37%Wolseley (WOS) 2,830.00p +1.22%CRH (CRH) 1,181.00p +1.20%Barclays (BARC) 264.25p +1.19%FTSE 100 - FallersBunzl (BNZL) 1,013.00p -4.97%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,239.00p -1.74%GKN (GKN) 225.50p -1.40%United Utilities Group (UU.) 694.00p -0.79%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,927.00p -0.77%Aggreko (AGK) 1,691.00p -0.76%Pearson (PSON) 1,199.00p -0.50%Experian (EXPN) 1,005.00p -0.49%Polymetal International (POLY) 1,180.00p -0.42%Kingfisher (KGF) 276.00p -0.36%FTSE 250 - RisersNew World Resources A Shares (NWR) 303.20p +4.55%Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 100.10p +3.62%Salamander Energy (SMDR) 172.50p +3.23%William Hill (WMH) 344.70p +3.11%Synthomer (SYNT) 187.40p +2.68%Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 168.00p +2.00%Galliford Try (GFRD) 744.00p +1.92%Dignity (DTY) 1,064.00p +1.92%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 31.37p +1.85%African Barrick Gold (ABG) 448.10p +1.84%FTSE 250 - FallersVesuvius (VSVS) 335.10p -48.05%Centamin (DI) (CEY) 39.00p -7.36%Ocado Group (OCDO) 79.50p -2.03%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 488.10p -1.19%NMC Health (NMC) 173.00p -1.14%Utilico Emerging Markets Ltd (DI) (UEM) 164.60p -1.14%Halfords Group (HFD) 343.00p -1.01%KCOM Group (KCOM) 71.05p -0.98%Balfour Beatty (BBY) 269.10p -0.96%Grainger (GRI) 118.60p -0.92%BC