The UK’s main index opened fairly flat this morning as concerns over Greece continue to weigh on stocks.
The European Central Bank meets at lunchtime and will be the focus of attention as it plans to offer Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras one last deal.
Greece needs to make a €330mln payment, the first of four due this month, by Friday with many assuming it needs to strike a deal to be able to complete this.
Overnight, in the US, markets also drifted lower with the Dow shedding 28 points to 18,012 and similar–sized dips for Nasdaq and S&P 500.
Back in the UK, the FTSE 100 was 7 points lower to 6,920.
Sitting at the bottom of the index was the National Grid (LON:NG. as it traded ex-dividend today. Shares eased 1.2% to 911p.
Away from the index, WH Smith (LON:SMWH) led the risers on the FTSE 250.
The book and stationery retailer said travel business sales were 8% higher as it continues to focus away from the High Street. Shares climbed 2.6% to 1,578p.
In broker news, JP Morgan took a liking to house builders, hiking up Persimmon’s (LON:PSN) target price 140p to 1,920p. Shares climbed almost 1% to 1,970p.
Conversely, UBS decided instrumentation designer Spectris (LON:SXS) wasn’t worth holding on to and downgraded its rating on the stock to ‘sell’ from ‘neutral’. Shares eased 3% to 2,254p.
In small caps, Ariana Resources (LON:AAU) shares soared 40% to 1.2p after it said it been granted a forestry permit for the Red Rabbit Gold Project in the West of Turkey.
Meanwhile, Azonto Petroleum (LON:AZO) told investors that Glen Whiddon is re-joining the company, as a non-executive director. Shares dropped almost 20% to 0.2p