Castings Share News (CGS)

LONDON (Alliance News) - London share prices ended lower Tuesday, as HSBC Holdings announced billions of dollars in cost cuts and the Greek government presented a new proposal to its international creditors to tighten is own belt.

The FTSE 100 ended down 0.5% at 6,753.80 points, a level it hasn't seen since mid-March. The FTSE 250 finished down 0.2% at 17,839.79, while the AIM All-Share closed down 0.3% at 772.09.

European major indices were lower, with the CAC 40 in Paris down 0.2% and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt down 0.7%.

The debt negotiations between Greece and its international creditors remained on stage centre Tuesday as investors tracked each bit of news coming out of the talks.

Greece submitted new reform proposals to its creditors, according to dpa sources in Brussels, a day before Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is due to hold key talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande.

"We have received proposals which we are now assessing," an European Union source said.

Tsipras said Tuesday that Athens cannot accept the demand of creditors on pensions. If Greece gets something good out of these negotiations - for example, an easing of austerity - the road will open for everyone, Tsipras added.

Meanwhile, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis criticized Greece's creditors for making "no concessions", in an interview with the German daily Der Tagesspiegel on Tuesday.

"What they propose is not a solution. It is a perpetuating of the crisis," Varoufakis said.

While Greece and its creditors search for an agreement, analysts say some investors have decided to get out of the stock market, due to the uncertain denouement of the debt drama.

"European stocks are once again heading lower as investor concerns grow about the prospects of Greece actually leaving the Eurozone," said Forex.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada. "Though such an outcome in our view is still unlikely, the probability of it becoming a reality is increasing as each day goes by without a deal being agreed upon. Evidently, investors are adjusting their risk exposures accordingly by reducing their equity holdings."

On the London Stock Exchange, HSBC Holdings shares ended down 0.9%. The UK's biggest bank is to cut thousands of jobs, re-deploy billions of dollars in risk-weighted assets from its investment bank to higher returning operations, and continue to deliberate whether to re-domicile away from London, as Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver seeks to satisfy investors by slashing costs and boosting returns in order to boost dividends.

Gulliver said the banking group will target a further USD4.5 billion to USD5.0 billion in savings on an annual basis by 2017, building on the considerable cost cuts already made during his time as CEO, with a one-off cost of between USD4.0 billion and USD4.5 billion to achieve that end.

HSBC confirmed it intends to sell operations in Turkey and Brazil, though it will keep a presence in the South American country to help serve large corporate clients, retaining Mexico as an opportunity, contrasting its open economy with those of Turkey and Brazil. It will axe between 22,000 and 25,000 full-time employees between 2014 and 2017, not including Brazil and Turkey, from the 258,000 employed across the whole group at the end of 2014, although reductions will be partly re-invested in growth and compliance.

Reed Elsevier shares ended up 1.4% at 1,076 pence after Barclays upgraded the company, to be renamed RELX from July 1, to Overweight from Equal Weight, lifting its price target to 1,225p from 1,135p. The bank said it is confident Reed's shares can still deliver a "decent performance" without a catalyst, given its valuation in relation to its peer group in other sectors.

Miners Anglo American and Rio Tinto finished down 2.0% and 1.3%, respectively, having both being downgraded to Hold from Buy by Societe Generale.

FTSE 250-listed Vedanta Resources closed up 5.2% after it noted press speculation about potentially merging its subsidiary Cairn India into itself. Vedanta Resources did not comment on the speculation, but said it "will make appropriate disclosures as and when required" about the potential merger of its wholly-owned subsidiary Vedanta and Cairn India, partly owned by Cairn Energy, which closed down 1.1%.

In the US, Wall Street was mixed when the European equity markets closed, with the DJIA and S&P 500 up 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.3%.

In the corporate calendar Wednesday, J Sainsbury issues a first-quarter trading statement, while Boohoo.com provides a trading update. FirstGroup, Hansa Trust, Castings and Flybe Group publish full-year results, and Zambeef Products and Shoe Zone release half-year results.

In the economic calendar, UK manufacturing and industrial production is due at 0930 BST, while the UK NIESR gross domestic product estimate is at 1500 BST. In the US, EIA Crude Oil stocks are due at 1530 BST.

By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com

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