London midday: Stocks stuck lower ahead of Greek announcement

The top share index remains a few points in the red, with all eyes on Greece ahead of the sticken Eurozone member's announcement of austerity measures. Greece's foreign minister Stavros Lambrinidis has assured that the country will stay in the euro and not default. "For the past year and a half I've been waking up every morning to reports of my imminent death: default of the country," he said in a CNBC interview. "We're still here, and Europe is still here ? and the euro is still a very strong currency."Furthermore, the 'Troika' (European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund and European Union) will return to Greece early next week in the clearest sign yet they are about to sign off on an €8bn (£7bn) aid payment to Greece. The European Commission said "good progress" was made in a teleconference with Athens.Meanwhile, European Commission president Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said that European policy makers should not dismiss the possibility of issuing Eurobonds and must develop integration tools to make it possible. In his own words, "We are not saying it is immediately. This is a matter that must be discussed, but we should not exclude that option either."The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously to keep rates and the asset purchase programme unchanged at its latest monthly meeting, but moved closer towards embarking on an expansion of quantitative easing. As expected, all nine members of the MPC voted to keep rates at 0.5%. Adam Posen voted for the quantitative easing programme to be raised to £250bn from £200bn. The voting was the same as at the August meeting in line with economists' predictions. In company news, Thomas Cook's investors have given new chairman Frank Meysman a warm welcome. The 59-year old Belgian will replace current chairman Michael Beckett when Beckett retires at the beginning of December. Legal & General falls after UBS cut its target price from 114p to 95p, saying that "the sector has de-rated by some 9% in the market turmoil since June".Supermarket giant Tesco falls after announcing that its Thai subsidiary is to launch an initial public offering of a property fund with an appraised value of 14bn Baht (more than £300m).Sports fashion retailer JD was in demand on the FTSE 250 after saying that while like-for-like sales fell by 1.6% in the first half, the group has returned to sales growth in the second half.FTSE 100 - RisersLloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 35.77p +4.48%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 23.49p +1.73%G4S (GFS) 268.70p +1.51%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,972.00p +1.49%Experian (EXPN) 724.00p +1.40%Intertek Group (ITRK) 2,044.00p +1.29%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,519.00p +1.27%ITV (ITV) 60.00p +1.18%Essar Energy (ESSR) 265.00p +1.11%Land Securities Group (LAND) 684.00p +1.11%FTSE 100 - FallersInmarsat (ISAT) 485.00p -3.67%Glencore International (GLEN) 435.25p -3.61%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,154.00p -3.59%Aviva (AV.) 298.20p -3.09%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,374.00p -1.79%Xstrata (XTA) 958.60p -1.78%Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,481.00p -1.60%Tullow Oil (TLW) 1,346.00p -1.54%BP (BP.) 408.30p -1.50%BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,937.00p -1.42%FTSE 250 - RisersThomas Cook Group (TCG) 44.03p +6.48%Redrow (RDW) 112.40p +4.66%Bwin.party Digital Entertainment (BPTY) 132.30p +4.01%Cookson Group (CKSN) 461.50p +3.85%Bellway (BWY) 628.00p +3.63%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 438.00p +3.55%Morgan Crucible Co (MGCR) 257.00p +3.46%Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 115.00p +2.77%Taylor Wimpey (TW.) 34.40p +2.66%Barratt Developments (BDEV) 84.35p +2.62%FTSE 250 - FallersOcado Group (OCDO) 107.80p -6.83%Enterprise Inns (ETI) 39.00p -4.29%Spirit Pub Company (SPRT) 39.75p -3.64%Exillon Energy (EXI) 278.20p -3.50%Keller Group (KLR) 352.25p -2.36%Debenhams (DEB) 57.20p -2.22%Carpetright (CPR) 475.50p -2.18%Hansteen Holdings (HSTN) 74.80p -2.16%Rank Group (RNK) 132.10p -2.15%Murray Income Trust (MUT) 600.00p -2.12%