Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

- Stocks rise as Greece approves austerity package. - Banks miss 'Project Merlin' lending targets.- Vodafone confirms potential takeover of C&W Worldwide. The Footsie was trading a whole percentage point higher by midday, with banks and miners extending gains from the morning session, following last night's parliamentary vote in Athens which saw politicians vote in favour of tough austerity measures needed to secure the country's next bailout. Amid a barrage of protests and burning buildings, politicians in Athens yesterday passed the austerity measures designed to cut €3.3bn from the deficit and achieve the approval of the issuance of the second financing package. The new €130bn bailout will help Athens meet its financing needs and thus avoid a default. Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos had warned lawmakers before the vote that "the social costs that come with these measures are contained in comparison to the economic and social catastrophe that will follow if we don't adopt them." Only 199 of the 300 politicians approved the measures and 43 deputies from the coalition government voted against it. Markets are now looking ahead to Wednesday when Eurozone finance ministers are expected to convene to give the green light to the second bailout.In domestic news, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has today cuts its forecast for gross domestic product growth (GDP) for this year and next, albeit due to the contraction seen at the end of 2011. The UK economy is now forecast to expand by 0.9% this year and by another 2% the next, compared with previous forecasts of 1.2% and 2.2%. However, the business lobby expects the British economy to avoid the technical definition of a recession, often defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction, thanks to increased business optimism. BANKS, MINERS IN DEMANDBanks and mining stocks were performing well on Monday on the back of the improved outlook for Greece. Lloyds was a standout performer, rising nearly 3%, shrugging off a sector-wide downgrade from Nomura. The broker cut its rating this morning for the bank from neutral to reduce, saying that both Lloyds and RBS are banking sector restructuring stories and therefore geared to market risk appetite; "we regard the current sector rally as a selling opportunity in what are likely to be drawn-out recovery projects in both cases". RBS and Barclays were also downgraded by Nomura but both stocks were making good gains.According to the figures released this morning by the Bank of England, lending from banks to all businesses reached £214.9bn in 2011, well past the £190bn target. However, 'Project Merlin' data showed that £74.9bn of this was allocated to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), just short of the £76bn target.With the euro strengthening against the dollar on the back of the Greek vote, greenback-denominated metals prices were on the rise, buoying the mining sector. Antofagasta, Anglo American, Kazakhmys, Rio Tinto and Xstrata were all making gains of at least 2%, with Anglo American performing particularly strongly despite revealing that its underlying earnings contribution from Anglo American Platinum fell from $425m to $410m in 2011. FTSE 250: CWW JUMPS AFTER VODAFONE TAKEOVER SPECULATION The big corporate news of the day is that telecoms giant Vodafone is weighing up a potential offer for struggling rival Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CWW). Vodafone's shares nudged higher, while CWW surged by almost 30%. Prior to today's announcement, CWW's shares lost almost three-quarters of their value over the last year after a series of profit warnings. Vodafone said it is still in the very early stages of assessing whether to make a bid and indicated that if it were to do so, the offer would likely be in the form of cash for shares.Elsewhere on the FTSE 250, Telecom Plus, the utility provider which trades as Utility Warehouse, rose strongly after saying full-year profits are expected to be slightly ahead of market expectations as it enjoyed a recent acceleration in organic growth. Data centre provider Telecity fell despite saying that full-year revenues came in slightly ahead of expectations. Revenue rose 22.1% while adjusted pre-tax profit increased 26.3%. Trading systems developer Fidessa delivered annual revenue growth of 6%, despite nervous financial markets, but believes that conditions will remain difficult for some time to come. Shares fell 3%.BCFTSE 100 - RisersAntofagasta (ANTO) 1,366.00p +3.25%Anglo American (AAL) 2,829.00p +3.00%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 35.45p +2.77%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 1,155.00p +2.76%Old Mutual (OML) 159.00p +2.51%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,862.00p +2.39%Xstrata (XTA) 1,226.50p +2.38%Ashmore Group (ASHM) 397.60p +2.24%Essar Energy (ESSR) 131.80p +2.17%Aviva (AV.) 368.90p +2.10%FTSE 100 - FallersCarnival (CCL) 1,935.00p -1.38%Polymetal International (POLY) 1,109.00p -1.33%Evraz (EVR) 408.50p -0.85%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 3,524.00p -0.48%Meggitt (MGGT) 364.60p -0.41%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 632.00p -0.39%Pearson (PSON) 1,184.00p -0.34%Tesco (TSCO) 319.65p -0.31%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 349.30p -0.26%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,992.00p -0.25%FTSE 250 - RisersCable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 25.52p +29.22%Kenmare Resources (KMR) 56.85p +7.06%TUI Travel (TT.) 211.00p +4.56%Henderson Group (HGG) 128.40p +4.31%Lonmin (LMI) 1,056.00p +4.04%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 347.20p +3.95%Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 37.76p +3.94%Hansteen Holdings (HSTN) 75.90p +3.55%Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 347.10p +3.52%Interserve (IRV) 316.50p +3.09%FTSE 250 - FallersSupergroup (SGP) 538.00p -3.32%Fidessa Group (FDSA) 1,641.00p -3.30%Perform Group (PER) 259.60p -3.17%Redrow (RDW) 125.80p -2.02%Computacenter (CCC) 407.30p -1.62%Bumi (BUMI) 744.50p -1.39%Savills (SVS) 366.00p -1.08%Dixons Retail (DXNS) 14.86p -0.93%KCOM Group (KCOM) 73.40p -0.81%Kesa Electricals (KESA) 80.40p -0.80%