LONDON (Alliance News) - London stock prices are flat to lower Monday on what is expected to be a light day of trading with US markets closed for President's Day, and with the focus on the meeting of eurozone finance ministers to discuss Greek debt repayments.
The Eurogroup meets in Brussels later Monday to try to find common ground on a debt deal with Greece' new government. In an interview with German media, Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he was "confident" of reaching agreement in negotiations, but reiterated the country would not accept harsh austerity strings in any debt pact.
"Time and money are running out for Greece. A subtle change in tone in Athens suggests that the new Greek government has started to notice. But whether prime minister Tsipras has really grasped how close he has already pushed Greece to the abyss of wholesale financial crisis, recession and Grexit and whether he is ready to perform the inevitable U-turn to avoid that fate remains a very open question," says Holger Schmieding, senior economist at Berenberg.
During mid-morning trade, the FTSE 100 is down 0.2% at 6,859.94, the FTSE 250 is flat at 16,850.47, while the AIM All-Share trades up 0.3% at 702.20.
European indices also trade mixed, with the CAC 40 in Paris flat, and the DAX 30 in Frankfurt down 0.3%, unable to build on the record high set on Friday.
The Eurozone trade surplus widened in December to a seasonally adjusted EUR23.3 billion, which according to the Financial Times is a new record high. The figure outstripped November's revised figure of EUR21.6 billion. Exports declined 1.1% on a monthly basis in December, reversing a 0.5% rise in the prior month. At the same time, imports were down 2.4% from November, when it decreased 0.5%.
SABMiller is one of the strongest performers in the FTSE 100, up 1.9%, after a media report suggested it could be a takeover target. A group of South American billionaires is understood to be considering making a GBP75 billion bid for the brewer, the Daily Mail's This is Money reported on Saturday. 3G Capital, a secretive investment firm run by a group of Brazilian investors, is also believed to have been studying whether it could be part of a consortium to bid for SABMiller which could include Anheuser-Busch InBev, the maker of Budweiser and Stella Artois, the Mail said, citing City sources.
However, a note issued by Nomura early Monday says simply of the Daily Mail story: "We are sceptical."
Hammerson shares recovered slightly from early morning weaknesses but continue to trade 0.3% lower. The FTSE 100 property developer reported a jump in pretax profit for 2014, boosted by gains made on the valuation of its property portfolio, as its net rental income also ticked higher over the year. It said its pretax profit for the year to the end of December was GBP703.1 million, more than double the GBP341.2 million posted a year earlier. The profit was driven higher by a big gain on the revaluation of its portfolio, which added GBP436.8 million to the pretax profit for the year, against only GBP90.3 million last year.
Hunting is one of the biggest fallers in the FTSE 250, down 7.2%, after it said it is possible that some its businesses will report growth in the year ahead, while others will be affected by the wider sector downturn. The energy services group said the early part of 2015 has seen the global energy industry reset its expenditure and profitability expectations in light of the anticipation of sustained lower prices for oil and gas. Expenditure estimates for the company's customers for the current year continue to evolve rapidly in light of changing oil prices, it said.
Fidessa Group, down 2.6%, is also amongst the worst FTSE 250 performers. The financial trading systems company reported a fall in profit for 2014, exacerbated by the strength of its sterling reporting currency, but upped its annual dividend by 3% to 38.1 pence per share and kept its special dividend flat at 45.0 pence, while the group also said it expects a gradual increase in its growth rate in 2015.
Infinis Energy, down 2.4%, is another big mid-cap faller. The company said it exported less power from both its landfill gas and onshore wind farm businesses in the first three quarters of its financial year, but said its landfill gas subsidiary reported a rise in third quarter revenue and earnings.
Jimmy Choo, up 6.4%, is the best mid-cap performer after it was upgraded to Overweight from Neutral by HSBC.
Still ahead in the economic calendar is German Buba monthly report at 1100 GMT.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
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