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LONDON (Alliance News) - London stock prices are flat to higher Tuesday, with the investors still waiting for answers on Greece, after the Eurogroup meeting concluded on Monday with no progress.
During mid-morning trade, the FTSE 100 is flat at 6,861.65, the FTSE 250 is up 16,905.69, while the AIM All-Share trades up 0.2% at 704.39.
The best way forward for the Greek authorities would be to seek an extension of the program, Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said at a press conference after the meeting in Brussels. Athens has time to seek an extension of the program until Friday. Otherwise, the EUR240 billion Greek bailout program will expire on February 28.
"The next step has to come from the Greek authorities. If the request for an extension would come in, we would of course look at it, ask the institutions to review it and advise us," Dijsselbloem said.
Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK says: "That they didn?t even get past early stages before collapsing doesn?t bode well. Even though expectations were low, with no realistic prospect of a positive outcome, as both sides try and push the limits of what they are prepared to accept, or not accept, I think most people still thought that the talks would last well into the evening, as is the norm with these events."
While SocGen analyst Kit Juckes says: "From here, a war of words is likely, though the next firm date in the diary is the ECB meeting tomorrow to discuss liquidity funding for Greek banks. Uncertainty reigns but even if talks go to the wire, successfully kicking the can down the road and agreeing a deal, would be Euro-positive for a while".
"By contrast, failure to agree a deal this week will see a renewed round of Euro weakness and the odds of that happening are increasing", adds Juckes.
In Europe, German economic confidence rose for the fourth consecutive month to a one-year high in February, survey data from the Centre for European Economic Research, ZEW showed Tuesday. The economic sentiment index came in at 53, up from 48.4 in January. This was the highest score since last February, when the reading was 55.7.
The data released by ZEW helped the DAX 30 in Frankfurt recover previous losses, trading Tuesday morning down 0.7%, while the CAC 40 in Paris is down 0.6%.
In the UK, consumer price inflation eased more than expected to a record low in January on falling motor fuel and food prices. Inflation slowed to 0.3% in January from 0.5% in December, the Office for National Statistics reported. It was forecast to slow to 0.4%. However, core inflation, which excludes energy, food, alcoholic beverages and tobacco, rose to 1.4% in January from 1.3% a month ago.
InterContinental Hotels Group is the biggest loser in the FTSE 100 Tuesday morning, down 4.3% after the company posted flat pretax profit for 2014. The hotel group said revenue per available room growth was being driven by a strong supply and demand story in the Americas, the group's biggest region.
The company, which owns brands including Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and InterContinental Hotels, reported an operating profit of USD651 million for 2014, down 3% on 2013's USD668 million profit. The decline was caused by hotel disposals and by liquidated damage receipts in 2013 that weren't all repeated, as well as revenue dipping 2% to USD1.86 billion from USD1.90 billion..
Supermarket chain Tesco is trading higher, among the best blue-chip performers, up 0.7%. Two of Tesco largest shareholders are backing the appointment of Archie Norman as chairman, for a replacement for outgoing chairman Richard Broadbent, with a decision expected to be made by the company as early as this week, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
Shares in insurer Brit lead the FTSE 250, up 10% to 302.45p, after Canadian property and casualty insurer Fairfax Financial Holdings said it has reached a deal to buy the company for around USD1.88 billion. Fairfax said Brit shareholders will get 305 pence per share, inclusive of any final dividend for the year to the end of December.
John Wood Group is one of the mid-cap biggest gainers, up 8.5% as the oil-services company said it increased by 25% its dividend for 2014 and said it intends to increase the dividend further from 2015 onwards.
John Wood reported a 3.1% rise in earnings before interest, tax and amortization to USD549.6 million in 2014, from USD533.0 million in 2013. The rise was caused by increased revenue and by the company's production services unit providing 30% year-on-year growth in EBITA in 2014.
In the economic calendar still to come Tuesday, US NY Empire State Manufacturing Index is at 1330 GMT, the US Redbook index at 1355 GMT, and the NAHB Housing Market Index at 1500 GMT.
US futures point to a lower opening following the President's Day holiday on Monday, with the DJIA pointed down 0.1%, the S&P 500 down 0.3% and Nasdaq 100 flat.
By Daniel Ruiz; danielruiz@alliancenews.com
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