Greece’s decision not to pay a loan repayment due to the IMF sent stock market across Europe lower.
FTSE 100 shed 47 to 6,812 as investors pondered the implications of the decision.
It is the first time a country has made such a move since Zambia in the eighties, though Greece insisted it had not defaulted rather it would bundle all the €1.5bn due this month into one payment rather than instalments.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will put forward proposals for a financial settlement to parliament later today, but the creditors’ restructuring plan is expected to receive a rough reception.
It’s a big day for economic news with US non-farm payroll and an OPEC meeting on the agenda.
In equity news, Vodafone (LON:VOD) was an early faller on the FTSE 100 as it clarified as the talks with Liberty Global flagged last night were about potential asset swaps rather than a full takeover. Shares eased 2% to 242p.
Lloyds Banking (LON:LLOY) was also lower at 87p as it confirmed a £117mln fine for mis-handling PPI complaints.
In broker news, Deutsche Bank lowered its price targets on supermarkets Tesco (LON:TSCO) and Morrisons (LON:MRW) this morning.
“We’ve seen no improvement in UK grocery market growth since the tentative rebound experienced December and January faded,” said Deutsche Bank’s Niamh McSherry in a note this morning.
Morrisons’ shares eased 1.9% to 174p while Tesco was 1.6p lower at 207p.
Away from the index, car-parts and bicycle retailer Halfords (LON:HFD) reported that sales passed £1bn for the first time last year. Shares rose 1.4% to 491p.
Small cap excitement centred around the Horse Hill oil development in Southern England where operator UK Oil & Gas (LON:UKOG) defied the sceptics to increase its estimate of oil in place to 255mln barrels per sq mile from 158 previously. UK Oil jumped 16% to 3p.
Assays from SolGold’s (LON:SOLG) eleventh hole at Cascabel in Ecuador showed vein intensity and copper mineralisation increased the further it went down. Shares rose almost 6% to 2.94p.
Conversely, Iodine specialist Iofina (LON:IOF) shed 12% to 26.4p as authorities in Montana knocked back plans for a water supply business for oilfield service companies.
Meanwhile, shares in Sovereign Mines of Africa (LON:SMA) almost halved after the release of full-year results that have taken almost six months to compile.
The company has written down the value of its flagship Mandiana gold project in Guinea by £3.7mln, resulting in a loss for the year of £3.88mln. Shares eased 41.6% to 0.25p making it the morning’s biggest faller.
Amphion Innovations (LON:AMP), the developer of medical and technology businesses, has raised £1.54mln through a placing of shares at 5.25p each.
The placing was oversubscribed and follows a good run for the shares that has seen them rise from 6p at the end of last week to 8.75p last night. Share slipped back 22% to 6.84p on the news today.