London midday: Triple-digit losses for the Footsie

- Papademos says preparations being made for Greek exit- CBO warns of US recession- Chinese growth to be hampered if Greece leaves euroLondon blue-chip index was registering steep losses on Wednesday as gains from the last two days were almost completely erased ahead of the EU summit this evening, with Greece likely to be at the top of the agenda.Weighing on sentiment were comments from former Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos who said that an exit from the euro would have "catastrophic" consequences for Greece. "Although such a scenario is unlikely to materialise and it is not desirable either for Greece or for other countries, it cannot be excluded that preparations are being made to contain the potential consequences of a Greek euro exit," he said in an interview with Dow Jones. International pressure has been mounting on Eurozone leaders to take quick action to stave off the recession that threatens the region. The European Council, which includes the heads of state or government of the 27 European Union member states, is holding an informal dinner Wednesday evening at 18:00 London time, where the members are expected to discuss both the situation in Greece and measures to increase growth. French President François Hollande is expected to press German Chancellor Angela Merkel for the implementation of the so-called 'eurobonds' (debt issued and backed by the entire Eurozone together).Gloomy comments from the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) were also dampening the mood today. The CBO warned of a risk of recession for the world's largest economy in 2013 if the Bush-era tax reductions were allowed to expire at the same time as spending cuts come into effect. It said that the US economy could contract by 1.3% in the first half of next year as the government falls off a "fiscal cliff".UK economyIn domestic news, the Bank of England's top decision makers indicated that more of them were on the verge of voting to increase stimulus measures at their lasting meeting. While the Monetary Policy Committee voted 8-to-1 to keep the Bank's quantitative easing programme steady at £325bn, the minutes of the meeting showed that "for several members, the decision not to expand the asset purchase programme at this meeting was finely balanced".UK retail sales registered their biggest monthly fall in April, with fuel sales tailing off dramatically after the panic buying in March, when motorists were encouraged by the government to stock up on petrol.FTSE 100: Miners tank on risk aversionThe blue-chip miners were dominating the fallers list on the Footsie by midday as metals prices dropped on concerns that the Chinese economy may be affected greatly by Greece leaving the euro: investment bank China International Capital Corp said today that the world's second-largest economy could see its lowest levels of growth in more than two decades in this scenario. Mining peers Vedanta Resources, Xstrata, Glencore, Kazakhmys, Fresnillo, Rio Tinto, Polymetal and Antogasta were suffering heavy losses.UK banking titan Barclays was out of favour after it announced the pricing details of the open offer part of its recently announced sale of its stake in US wealth management giant Blackrock. Barclays has agreed to sell 26.2m shares of Blackrock in an underwritten public offering at a price of $160 a share. Iconic British luxury brand Burberry dropped despite reporting solid profit growth in the year ended March 31st. Adjusted profit before tax increased by 26% from £298m to £376m, broadly in line with estimates. Analysts at Investec said this morning that bears make "take issue" today given the lack of upgrades following the results.There were just a handful of risers on the FTSE 100; British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) was one of them after the Competition Commission announced that it was no longer concerned that 'Sky Movies' has an unfair advantage over its competitors. FTSE 250: LSE falls after Italian banks sell upItalian banks UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo have announced that they have sold their combined 11.5% stake of market operator London Stock Exchange (LSE), causing shares to take a tumble today. The banks made the transaction via an "accelerated bookbuild" at 960p per share, a discount to Tuesday's closing price.Heading the other way was online grocer Ocado after saying it expects year on year gross sales growth of around 13% for the 12 weeks ending 13 May as demand for online food shopping grows and it overcomes constraints at its warehouse in Hatfield. FTSE 100 - RisersSmith & Nephew (SN.) 601.50p +1.60%Morrison (Wm) Supermarkets (MRW) 268.70p +0.26%British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 692.00p +0.22%FTSE 100 - FallersVedanta Resources (VED) 986.50p -5.78%Xstrata (XTA) 920.60p -5.38%Man Group (EMG) 73.50p -5.34%Glencore International (GLEN) 342.90p -5.17%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 699.50p -5.15%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,320.00p -4.83%Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,802.50p -4.56%Polymetal International (POLY) 803.50p -4.29%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,031.00p -4.18%Barclays (BARC) 181.50p -3.92%FTSE 250 - RisersOcado Group (OCDO) 106.90p +5.01%Paragon Group Of Companies (PAG) 162.50p +3.50%FirstGroup (FGP) 211.20p +3.07%Spirent Communications (SPT) 158.20p +2.86%Great Portland Estates (GPOR) 392.20p +2.62%Ophir Energy (OPHR) 586.50p +2.62%Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 2,735.00p +2.51%Greggs (GRG) 468.10p +2.43%JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 718.00p +2.06%Brewin Dolphin Holdings (BRW) 142.10p +1.72%FTSE 250 - FallersLondon Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 953.00p -6.66%Ferrexpo (FXPO) 214.00p -6.63%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 77.80p -6.49%Petropavlovsk (POG) 391.70p -6.43%Premier Farnell (PFL) 170.00p -5.97%Logica (LOG) 64.90p -5.19%Lonmin (LMI) 744.00p -5.16%TUI Travel (TT.) 164.80p -5.07%Fenner (FENR) 385.40p -4.82%New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 323.00p -4.44%BC