London open: Greek worries drag down market early on

Markets opened lower on Wednesday morning on the back of ongoing concerns over the Eurozone, despite a Greek official assuring that the country will not default. Meanwhile, investors in London await the release of the policy rate decision from the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) due out later this morning.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 MPC is due to release the results of its policy rate decision at 09:30. Consensus expects the committee to vote unanimously again (9-0) to hold the Bank Rate at 0.5%, while the asset purchases are expected be maintained at £200bn, with just one member (Adam Posen) calling for an increase. "However, with downside risks to growth having intensified it is certainly possible that one or two additional MPC members may have joined Adam Posen in voting for an increase in quantitative easing," said Barclays Capital economist Chris Crowe.In company movements, Aviva and Aggreko were two blue chips providing a drag after going ex-dividend.Tobacco peers British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco were in demand after the latter said that full-year results will be in line with revenues up 2%, despite a weak performance in the Spanish market. Legal & General was lower 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 fell 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.BCFTSE 100 - RisersImperial Tobacco Group (IMT) 2,133.00p +1.91%Smiths Group (SMIN) 977.00p +1.03%IMI (IMI) 806.50p +0.94%ITV (ITV) 59.80p +0.84%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,512.00p +0.80%RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 114.20p +0.62%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 7,260.00p +0.62%Capita Group (CPI) 736.50p +0.61%British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,857.50p +0.53%WPP (WPP) 625.00p +0.48%FTSE 100 - FallersAviva (AV.) 296.30p -3.70%Inmarsat (ISAT) 485.10p -3.65%Glencore International (GLEN) 442.75p -1.95%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,179.00p -1.50%Essar Energy (ESSR) 258.30p -1.45%ARM Holdings (ARM) 610.00p -1.45%BP (BP.) 408.60p -1.42%Xstrata (XTA) 963.40p -1.29%Tesco (TSCO) 366.75p -1.19%Cairn Energy (CNE) 293.00p -1.18%FTSE 250 - RisersJD Sports Fashion (JD.) 873.50p +3.93%Premier Foods (PFD) 12.70p +3.93%Yule Catto & Co (YULC) 176.80p +2.79%SVG Capital (SVI) 228.20p +2.33%Spirent Communications (SPT) 128.70p +2.14%Computacenter (CCC) 395.10p +2.04%COLT Group SA (COLT) 106.50p +2.01%Perpetual Income & Growth Inv Trust (PLI) 245.80p +1.82%F&C Commercial Property Trust Ltd. (FCPT) 101.00p +1.76%Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 430.30p +1.73%FTSE 250 - FallersSEGRO (SGRO) 233.70p -2.05%National Express Group (NEX) 232.90p -1.77%Aquarius Platinum Ltd. (AQP) 222.90p -1.72%Kier Group (KIE) 1,237.00p -1.67%Premier Farnell (PFL) 159.30p -1.48%Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 336.10p -1.47%F&C Inv Trust (FRCL) 283.90p -1.36%JKX Oil & Gas (JKX) 182.25p -1.35%AZ Electronic Materials SA (WI) (AZEM) 247.50p -1.24%Ashmore Group (ASHM) 405.00p -1.22%