London close: Greece rumours spark late sell-off

Equities dropped into the red for a third consecutive day on Wednesday with renewed political tension in Greece sparked another bout of market volatility.The FTSE 100 finished down 41 points at 6,299, the first time that it has closed below the 6,300 mark since April 22nd.London's benchmark index edged higher early on with a bigger-than-expected fall in UK unemployment supporting sentiment in morning trade. However, reports of an emergency cabinet meeting in Greece and rumours of a potential vote of confidence for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras shook markets before the close.The reports came on the same day that the government confirmed it would close down public broadcaster ERT as it looks for ways to reduce costs and bring its budget in line. The government also faced a major setback on Monday as Russia's Gazprom withdrew a bid to take over the state gas firm Depa."Markets are feeling very uneasy about the recent developments in Greece this week, fearing that the country may slip behind in meeting its year-end targets with its international creditors," said Market Strategist Ishaq Siddiqi from ETX Capita."That would lead to an aggressive austerity drive which would raise the spectre of sovereign default once again and political instability which could see left-wing anti-euro parties such as Syriza gain influence in the polls."In other news, domestic economic data continues to come in ahead of expectations, raising the outlook for the British economy. UK unemployment data released this morning showed that the number of people requesting Jobseeker's Allowance dropped by 8,600, compared with forecasts for a 6,500 fall. The jobless rate however was unchanged at 7.8%, as expected. FTSE 100: Severn Trent and Vodafone drop sharplyWater group Severn Trent dropped sharply on Wednesday after the consortium of foreign investors that had bid for the company withdrew its offer last night. LongRiver, after having had its earlier proposals rejected by Severn Trent, said that it would not put forward a further offer "in the absence of meaningful engagement" with the utility's board.Vodafone was also a heavy faller after going ex-dividend (along with Johnson Matthey), though the telecoms giant also confirmed that it has approached Kabel Deutschland about a possible takeover. According to Fitch Ratings, Vodafone could be downgraded by one notch if it acquires the German cable operator without taking other measures to reduce debt.Heading the other way was BSkyB, which was making gains after rumours that part-owner News Corp's plan to split the company into two could lead to a fresh bid for the UK pay-TV and broadband group.Supermarket giant Sainsbury edged higher after reporting its 34th straight quarter of like-for-like (LFL) sales growth, though the 0.7% increase in LFL sales in the first quarter was a sharp slowdown from the 3.6% growth seen in the preceding quarter.Asset manager Aberdeen was a strong riser as investors looked to take advantage of its recent slump. Matt Basi, the head of UK Sales Trading at CMC Markets said that the stock has "found some support [...] as bargain hunters saw some value in a forward price-to-earnings ratio of just 13".FTSE 250: Heritage Oil jumps as product ramps back upThe share price of FTSE 250 upstream exploration and production firm Heritage Oil surged on Wednesday after the company said that production at its OML 30 licence in Nigeria is back at normal levels.Output has now returned to rates of over 35,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) after falling to just 6,932 bopd in the first quarter as flow stations had to be shut down due to employee strikes. The company said that a number of "temporary factors" that had caused lower-than-expected production have now been "successfully addressed".Price-comparison website Moneysupermarket.com was sharply lower given that today is the ex-dividend date for its special interim dividend of 12.92p a share announced last week as it returns £70 to shareholders.LondonMetric Property, Booker and Intermediate Capital were also in the red after going ex-dividend today.Lighting, signalling and electronics group Dialight was rebounding after posting heavy falls the day before. The company said on Tuesday that first-half profits would be adversely affected by weaker sales in the Signal segment and additional costs from the planned extra sales in the Lighting segment.FTSE 100 - RisersG4S (GFS) 242.00p +2.85%Tate & Lyle (TATE) 821.00p +2.69%Smith & Nephew (SN.) 753.50p +2.17%Capita (CPI) 955.50p +1.87%Serco Group (SRP) 601.50p +1.78%Polymetal International (POLY) 628.00p +1.78%Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 402.50p +1.69%Carnival (CCL) 2,160.00p +1.65%BT Group (BT.A) 309.30p +1.41%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 788.50p +1.35%FTSE 100 - FallersSevern Trent (SVT) 1,765.00p -8.88%Vodafone Group (VOD) 181.00p -5.73%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,149.00p -3.36%Evraz (EVR) 113.70p -3.07%Barclays (BARC) 295.80p -2.87%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 4,815.00p -2.25%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,570.00p -2.02%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 233.30p -2.02%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,261.00p -2.02%CRH (CRH) 1,291.00p -1.97%FTSE 250 - RisersNew World Resources A Shares (NWR) 99.45p +5.24%Heritage Oil (HOIL) 142.40p +4.55%BTG (BTG) 375.70p +3.47%Hays (HAS) 86.65p +3.28%National Express Group (NEX) 212.40p +3.01%Keller Group (KLR) 949.50p +2.65%Centamin (DI) (CEY) 36.94p +2.58%Dialight (DIA) 1,186.00p +2.51%Ted Baker (TED) 1,441.00p +2.20%PayPoint (PAY) 974.50p +2.04%FTSE 250 - FallersMoneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 183.80p -7.41%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 295.70p -6.98%Oxford Instruments (OXIG) 1,359.00p -6.60%Hochschild Mining (HOC) 207.20p -4.82%888 Holdings (888) 147.10p -4.29%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 119.50p -3.78%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 290.10p -3.56%LondonMetric Property (LMP) 109.80p -3.35%BlueCrest AllBlue Fund Ltd. GBP Shares (BABS) 173.00p -3.35%Bank of Georgia Holdings (BGEO) 1,720.00p -3.21%