London open: Stocks open flat on uncertainty ahead of Greek referendum

UK stocks opened broadly flat on Thursday morning as fading optimism about a Greek debt deal and an upcoming US jobs report gave investors reasons to be cautious.The FTSE 100 was down 0.07% at 6,603.96 early on.After showing signs of conceding ground on Wednesday and offering to meet most of the demands from last week's funding proposal, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the planned 5 July referendum on a bailout deal would still go ahead and reiterated his call on the public to vote 'no'."Yesterday was a spectacular day for Alex Tsipras's political flip-flopping, in the morning appearing to have yielded to most of Greece's creditors' demands, only to turn around later and tell his people to tell the very same creditors to get stuffed and vote 'no' in Sunday's referendum," said dealer Jonathan Sudaria from London Capital Group.European leaders have now broken off talks about a new deal and said they would not hold more discussions until after the referendum."The line appears to be that the creditors are happy to talk, either after the referendum, or straightaway if the referendum is called off," said CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson.Looking ahead, the non-farm payrolls figure for June - scheduled one day earlier than normal due to national holidays Stateside on Friday for the weekend's Fourth of July celebrations - will be released at 13:30, along with a barrage of other labour-market data such as the unemployment rate, average hourly earnings, and weekly jobless claims.Analysts expect the Labor Department to report that 230,000 payrolls were added in the US economy last month, down sharply from the forecast-beating 280,000 that were registered for May, the highest since December 2014. The unemployment rate is estimated to tick down further to 5.4% from 5.5%.Ex-div stocks provide a dragA number of blue chips were trading in the red after going ex-dividend, including Compass, Babcock, British Land, Burberry, Coca-Cola HBC and Royal Mail.Dixons Carphone rose strongly after entering into an agreement with Sprint Corp to open and manage a significant number of Sprint-branded stores in the US.Housebuilder Persimmon underwhelmed with its first-half results despite revenues increasing by 12% thanks to higher selling prices and higher volumes of new home sales, aided by an increasingly competitive mortgage market.Chemicals company Synthomer fell after guiding to a lower operating profit in its Europe and North American division in the first half due to weak demand and increased prices for raw materials.Product testing outfit Intertek was trading with heavy losses after Jefferies lowered its stance on the shares to 'underperform' and cut its target price from 2,400p to 2,100p.Outsourcer Serco was extending gains made on Wednesday following a strong first-half trading update, as Numis raised its rating on the stock to 'hold'.Market MoverstechMARK 3,125.84 -0.09%FTSE 100 6,603.96 -0.07%FTSE 250 17,672.39 -0.25%FTSE 100 - RisersDixons Carphone (DC.) 474.60p +3.44%Hammerson (HMSO) 632.00p +0.88%London Stock Exchange Group (LSE) 2,433.00p +0.70%AstraZeneca (AZN) 4,148.50p +0.68%Land Securities Group (LAND) 1,242.00p +0.65%United Utilities Group (UU.) 897.50p +0.62%Smiths Group (SMIN) 1,157.00p +0.61%Shire Plc (SHP) 5,240.00p +0.58%HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 574.20p +0.58%Intu Properties (INTU) 313.00p +0.51%FTSE 100 - FallersIntertek Group (ITRK) 2,364.00p -3.98%Royal Mail (RMG) 502.00p -3.00%Ashtead Group (AHT) 1,073.00p -2.54%Babcock International Group (BAB) 1,069.00p -2.11%Burberry Group (BRBY) 1,559.00p -2.01%Coca-Cola HBC AG (CDI) (CCH) 1,353.00p -1.96%Weir Group (WEIR) 1,691.00p -1.63%ARM Holdings (ARM) 1,046.00p -1.60%G4S (GFS) 268.40p -1.47%Hargreaves Lansdown (HL.) 1,153.00p -1.37%FTSE 250 - RisersSerco Group (SRP) 126.50p +7.20%Entertainment One Limited (ETO) 370.40p +4.04%Betfair Group (BET) 2,501.00p +3.95%BTG (BTG) 650.50p +3.58%AA (AA.) 383.60p +3.48%Supergroup (SGP) 1,271.00p +3.42%Great Portland Estates (GPOR) 802.50p +3.41%Derwent London (DLN) 3,518.00p +3.41%WH Smith (SMWH) 1,579.00p +3.34%Hiscox Limited (CDI) (HSX) 866.00p +3.22%FTSE 250 - FallersHunting (HTG) 577.00p -5.41%Evraz (EVR) 117.70p -4.46%Zoopla Property Group (WI) (ZPLA) 266.00p -4.32%Lonmin (LMI) 107.10p -4.29%ICAP (IAP) 510.00p -3.68%Premier Oil (PMO) 144.30p -3.22%Fidessa Group (FDSA) 2,207.00p -2.99%Acacia Mining (ACA) 293.30p -2.85%Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 518.50p -2.63%Vedanta Resources (VED) 507.50p -2.40%