Lloyds Share News (LLOY)

With another European nation losing its prized 'AAA' rating last night, UK stocks edged into negative territory on Tuesday morning as Eurozone concerns came back into focus ahead of an extraordinary Eurogroup meeting on Greece.Investors are losing options to safeguard their funds in the highest investment-grade assets after Moody's decided to strip France of its triple-A rating. The US rating agency has downgraded France by one notch to 'Aa1' while keeping a negative outlook, which signals that the country is susceptible to future downgrades."The first driver underlying Moody's one-notch downgrade of France's sovereign rating is the risk to economic growth, and therefore to the government's finances, posed by the country's persistent structural economic challenges," Moody's said. Markus Huber, the head of German HNW trading at ETX Capital said this morning: "While the move by Moody's doesn't necessarily comes as a surprise considered that not only has the European financial crisis still not been fully contained and French growth and finances have been weakening over the last few quarters, it certainly sends an important reminder that not only Greece and Spain are struggling with high debt levels and excessive budget deficits but also that France has much work left to do to balance their books. "Furthermore this also means that the honeymoon period for French President Hollande has certainly come to an end," he said.Meanwhile, Eurozone finance ministers are meeting today in Brussels to discuss whether of not to release the next tranche of aid for Greece. However, Marianne Kothe, spokesperson for Germany's Finance Ministry, told the German press yesterday that a decision on the next part of the bailout should not be expected today.The FTSE 100 surged 2.36% yesterday on the back of optimism that US politicians can agree on ways to avert the 'fiscal cliff'. President Barack Obama said at the weekend that he is confident that the US "can get our fiscal situation dealt with."Banks fall on FSA worriesBanking stocks including Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds were out of favour this morning after Andrew Bailey, the head of banking supervision at the FSA, said that banks should face the threat of being broken up if they do not comply with proposals to ring-fence retail and riskier operations.Real estate investment trust British Land gained after seeing a solid increase in underlying profits in the first half, as it continued to outperform its benchmark of property returns, the IPD. Meanwhile, the firm announced that its Chairman of six years, Chris Gibson-Smith, would be stepping down at the end of 2012. easyJet was flying high after delivering forecast-beating record profits boosted by higher margins and increased passenger numbers.LED manufacturer Dialight rose after saying that it has received a major order from an unnamed US power plant operator for over 1,000 LED lighting fixtures.ZYTIGA, the prostate cancer treatment drug developed by specialist healthcare company BTG, has been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the firm announced, prompting shares to rise.Strong growth internationally saw home emergency repairs group HomeServe achieve a decent increase in revenue and profit in the first half despite a slight fall in customer numbers over the period, with shares up early on.Safety, health and environmental technology group Halma fell despite increasing its interim dividend payment from 3.79p to 4.06p per share. The company delivered a 6% rise in both revenue and profit.FTSE 100 - RisersInterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) 1,623.00p +2.08%International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 166.10p +1.65%IMI (IMI) 1,003.00p +1.42%Intertek Group (ITRK) 2,870.00p +1.20%Xstrata (XTA) 967.00p +1.07%GKN (GKN) 209.60p +0.91%Wood Group (John) (WG.) 799.50p +0.88%Marks & Spencer Group (MKS) 375.70p +0.83%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,224.00p +0.82%Amec (AMEC) 1,034.00p +0.78%FTSE 100 - FallersHammerson (HMSO) 454.40p -1.52%ARM Holdings (ARM) 737.50p -1.27%Meggitt (MGGT) 376.30p -1.18%National Grid (NG.) 691.00p -1.14%Anglo American (AAL) 1,691.50p -1.11%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 611.50p -1.10%Old Mutual (OML) 169.30p -0.99%BT Group (BT.A) 221.70p -0.98%CRH (CRH) 1,109.00p -0.98%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 284.60p -0.94%FTSE 250 - RisersLonmin (LMI) 301.00p +9.88%easyJet (EZJ) 681.50p +4.44%Telecom Plus (TEP) 894.50p +3.53%Ocado Group (OCDO) 76.70p +2.27%Homeserve (HSV) 228.00p +2.24%Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 103.50p +1.87%Heritage Oil (HOIL) 191.40p +1.81%New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 236.80p +1.63%RPS Group (RPS) 213.00p +1.62%Ruspetro (RPO) 90.90p +1.51%FTSE 250 - FallersLondon Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 967.00p -2.03%Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 2,805.12p -2.02%KCOM Group (KCOM) 69.60p -1.97%Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 245.20p -1.92%Grainger (GRI) 112.00p -1.75%Investec (INVP) 379.80p -1.63%Afren (AFR) 134.00p -1.62%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 210.50p -1.50%Pace (PIC) 180.10p -1.42%Centamin (DI) (CEY) 68.30p -1.37%BC