London open: Stocks flat despite banking strength

UK stocks opened broadly flat on Tuesday morning ahead of some UK inflation data, with markets pausing for breath after a strong rise in the year to date.The FTSE 100 had a subdued day yesterday on the back of a lack of economic news and low trading volumes, partly owing to the closure of Asian markets for Lunar New Year holiday. Several of these markets still remain closed.Market analyst Craig Erlam from Alpari said that the Italian election and the sequester in the US are likely to create "large amounts of uncertainty in the markets" over the next few weeks. "Stock markets have become extremely overbought recently, so this provides the perfect opportunity for a correction, with traders already starting to take profits on their positions," he said.UK inflation data (due out at 09:30) will likely be in focus this morning after last week's move by the Bank of England to leave its asset purchase programme unchanged.Erlam said: "The figure is expected to remain at the higher end of the BoE's target range, making some policy members uncomfortable given the questionable impact that asset purchases have on the real economy."Markets were also digesting yesterday's Eurogroup meeting, where Eurozone finance ministers refrained from taking any action on either the strength of the euro or the Cyprus bailout.FTSE 100: Barclays unveils plans to cut jobsUK banking group Barclays was performing well this morning after releasing the details of its strategic review, which includes 3,700 jobs cuts. Meanwhile, the company said that adjusted profits before tax grew 26% to £7.05bn in 2012, helped by a 46% improvement in Corporate and Investment Banking and 52% in Wealth and Investment Management.Sector peers Lloyds and RBS were also on the up this morning.Power systems group Rolls-Royce was in the red despite winning a $83.7m contract to build aircraft engines for the US Marine Corps and Air Force.Security solutions firm G4S was slightly lower after saying that it will incur an overall loss worth £70m for its mismanaged Olympic Games contract. Merger partners Xstrata and Glencore were both subdued after publishing production reports for 2012. The firms said the merger was still waiting on the approvals of regulators in China, amongst other things.Oil and gas giant Tullow was in the red after its partner Kosmos Energy submitted plans for three discoveries on the Deepwater Tano Block offshore Ghana.FTSE 250: United Drug up early onHealthcare services provider United Drug gained after saying that trading across the group during the first quarter was strong, with revenues and profit ahead of the same period the year before.Paper and packaging group Mondi fell after saying that full-year 2012 underlying operating profits would be below the €622m achieved in 2011.Homewares retailer Dunelm was lower despite saying that pre-tax profits rose 14.6% to £59.8m in the first half on revenues which rose 13.4%.FTSE 100 - RisersBarclays (BARC) 307.65p +2.04%Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 53.50p +1.42%ARM Holdings (ARM) 912.00p +0.94%Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 343.40p +0.91%CRH (CRH) 1,349.00p +0.82%British American Tobacco (BATS) 3,317.50p +0.81%Associated British Foods (ABF) 1,766.00p +0.68%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,353.00p +0.59%Reckitt Benckiser Group (RB.) 4,260.00p +0.59%United Utilities Group (UU.) 732.00p +0.55%FTSE 100 - FallersGKN (GKN) 253.80p -1.59%Polymetal International (POLY) 1,033.00p -1.53%Kazakhmys (KAZ) 744.00p -1.20%Randgold Resources Ltd. (RRS) 5,775.00p -1.20%Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,120.00p -1.15%Old Mutual (OML) 191.20p -1.09%Reed Elsevier (REL) 686.00p -1.08%Fresnillo (FRES) 1,643.00p -1.02%Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 391.80p -1.01%Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,619.00p -0.92%FTSE 250 - RisersMan Group (EMG) 103.20p +2.38%Stobart Group Ltd. (STOB) 96.70p +1.79%Moneysupermarket.com Group (MONY) 200.90p +1.72%United Drug (UDG) 284.80p +1.35%Ophir Energy (OPHR) 493.90p +1.25%3i Group (III) 285.60p +1.24%Rank Group (RNK) 153.90p +1.12%St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 251.70p +1.08%Daejan Holdings (DJAN) 3,190.00p +1.08%SVG Capital (SVI) 340.60p +1.07%FTSE 250 - FallersICAP (IAP) 342.80p -4.17%Petropavlovsk (POG) 340.90p -2.57%Informa (INF) 473.70p -2.21%Essar Energy (ESSR) 141.50p -1.94%Heritage Oil (HOIL) 203.10p -1.88%Catlin Group Ltd. (CGL) 506.50p -1.84%Ultra Electronics Holdings (ULE) 1,600.00p -1.78%Dunelm Group (DNLM) 777.50p -1.77%Supergroup (SGP) 705.50p -1.74%Savills (SVS) 527.50p -1.68%FTSE TechMARK - RisersXP Power Ltd. (DI) (XPP) 1,164.45p +4.34%Filtronic (FTC) 70.00p +2.94%Optos (OPTS) 208.83p +1.87%Kofax (KFX) 274.25p +0.37%Puricore (PURI) 39.00p 0.00%Innovation Group (TIG) 25.00p 0.00%DRS Data & Research Services (DRS) 18.50p 0.00%Triad Group (TRD) 6.00p 0.00%Parity Group (PTY) 23.88p 0.00%BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. (BVC) 17.00p 0.00%FTSE TechMARK - FallersVislink (VLK) 30.12p -2.03%Sepura (SEPU) 95.00p -1.55%Wolfson Microelectronics (WLF) 201.24p -0.13%Puricore (PURI) 39.00p 0.00%Innovation Group (TIG) 25.00p 0.00%DRS Data & Research Services (DRS) 18.50p 0.00%Triad Group (TRD) 6.00p 0.00%Parity Group (PTY) 23.88p 0.00%BATM Advanced Communications Ltd. (BVC) 17.00p 0.00%Antisoma (ASM) 1.96p 0.00%