London midday: Footsie down nearly two per cent on Greek uncertainty

- Risk-off as Greek exit speculation weighs on sentiment- Eurozone finance ministers to focus on Greece, Spain and growth- Banks, miners lead the fallers on the FootsieThe FTSE 100 index traded broadly sideways in morning trade, holding on to the steep losses seen in the opening hour on the back of political concerns in the Eurozone. Financials and miners are leading the decline on London benchmark."European stocks are collapsing once again today with investors moving as far away from risk as they can," notes Alpari analyst Craig Erlam.Greece's radical left-wing party Syriza rejected an invitation from President Karolos Papoulias to meet for negotiations on the formation of a coalition. Papoulias attempted to organise talks with the country's three-largest parties, New Democracy, Syriza and Pasok, along with the smaller Democratic Left that had been involved in attempts to come to an agreement. If an agreement cannot be reached, the Greeks will return to the polls for new elections. The Eurozone finance ministers known collectively as the Eurogroup are to hold a meeting later this afternoon and will most likely be focused on political issues as they consider how to focus new policies towards bolstering growth in the euro area. The market worries about the Eurozone's capability to withstand the type of blow that would be caused if Greece decided to leave the monetary union.The President of the Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann, said at the weekend that if the country were to exit the single currency, "the consequences for Greece would be more serious than for the rest of the Eurozone." In other news, German Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU party received yet another blow as the opposing social democrats strengthened their position in the country's most populous state. Voters in North Rhine-Westphalia chose the centre-left SPD candidate Hannelore Kraft over conservative CDU candidate Norbert Roettgen, giving the social democrats a firm victory ahead of next year's nationwide elections. FTSE 100: Risk-off as banks and mining stocks sold offLloyds, Barclays and RBS were the among the worst-performing stocks by lunchtime in London "as investors are concerned about the losses other banks have incurred 'hedging their risk' following the $2bn loss by JP Morgan Chase & Co", Alpari's Erlam said. HSBC was also out of favour after announcing that the sale of its operations in Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and Paraguay for $400m in cash.Falling metals prices were providing downward pressure on the share prices of the blue-chip miners, with Anglo American, ENRC, Vedanta, Kazakhmys, Xstrata and BHP Billiton all lower. Polymetal International fell after announcing the sale of its Veduga gold deposit in the Krasnoyarsk region of Russia for $20m. Outsourcing specialist Serco was lower after warning that its first-half performance will reflect the challenging environment in the US. Nevertheless, the firm said that it is on track to meet its full-year expectations. FTSE 250: Lonmin, Essar fall after updates Lonmin, the world's third-largest platinum producer, dropped after saying production in the first three months of 2012 was little changed from a year earlier, despite losing 170,000 tonnes of production because of safety stoppages. ??Essar Energy was out of favour after announcing that its 87.09%-owned Indian oil subsidiary, Essar Oil, saw a sharp drop in earnings in the year to March 31st due to the reversal of a sales tax benefits and a planned plant shutdown. Exploration firm Afren rose after saying it had found significant oil reserves at its Ebok North Fault Block well, offshore Nigeria. On the broader market in London, AIM-listed Chariot Oil and Gas has plummeted over 40% after announcing that its Tapir South exploration well (offshore Namibia) found no commercial hydrocarbons. FTSE 100 - RisersSevern Trent (SVT) 1,703.00p +0.59%Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 316.60p +0.38%BT Group (BT.A) 210.30p +0.29%Sage Group (SGE) 262.40p +0.27%International Power (IPR) 419.40p +0.10%FTSE 100 - FallersMan Group (EMG) 82.70p -5.92%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 29.31p -5.71%Barclays (BARC) 191.40p -5.62%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 21.78p -5.14%Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 2,162.00p -4.76%Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 249.50p -4.41%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,488.00p -4.19%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,403.00p -4.10%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,045.00p -4.04%Xstrata (XTA) 1,010.00p -3.99%FTSE 250 - RisersInvensys (ISYS) 212.40p +4.89%Rank Group (RNK) 121.30p +3.94%Spirit Pub Company (SPRT) 56.00p +2.75%JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 775.00p +1.17%Salamander Energy (SMDR) 173.90p +1.16%Afren (AFR) 122.90p +1.15%Bumi (BUMI) 425.00p +0.90%Euromoney Institutional Investor (ERM) 770.50p +0.72%Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 122.30p +0.58%Misys (MSY) 349.00p +0.58%FTSE 250 - FallersOphir Energy (OPHR) 500.50p -6.62%Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 118.90p -6.01%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 580.00p -5.92%Essar Energy (ESSR) 124.40p -5.69%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 102.90p -5.07%Petra Diamonds Ltd.(DI) (PDL) 136.30p -4.95%Shanks Group (SKS) 84.55p -4.68%CSR (CSR) 213.70p -4.60%Tullett Prebon (TLPR) 289.10p -4.33%Logica (LOG) 70.75p -4.33%BC