London’s blue-chip stocks paused for breath this morning as continuing uncertainty surrounding Greece weighs on markets across Europe.
Overnight, however, New York’s main benchmarks all posted strong gains in what was the best single session in the market for a number of weeks.
Meanwhile, Greek prime minister once again left Brussels without a deal to finance his beleaguered country despite boosting effort to find common ground before the deadline.
Back in the UK, chancellor George Osborne gave his annual Mansion House speech and said the time was right to sell-off some of its stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland (LON:RBS).
Shares in RBS rose 1.6% to 360p on the news in early trading this morning.
Osborne also backed a move by the Bank of England governor Mark Carney to impose tougher punishments on bankers who rig markets.
The UK’s main index, the FTSE 100, opened 2 points lower to 6,828 this morning.
Leading the fallers was Royal Mail (LON:RMG). Lost in the blockbuster announcement that Osborne is selling the government’s stake in RBS, was the news it has also cut its stake in Royal Mail.
The government's department for business, innovation & skills said it has completed the disposal of a 15% tranche of its holding in Royal Mail via a share placing at 500 pence a share. Shares eased 4.1% to 495p.
Telecoms giant Vodafone (LON:VOD) was the most high-profile company trading ex-dividend today. Shares slipped 2.8% to 237p.
In broker news, Majestic Wine (LON:MJW), which appointed Anita Balchandani as a non-executive director earlier this week, was upgraded by Liberum Capital.
The broker bumped it up to a ‘buy’ from ‘hold’ sending shares 2.75p higher to 447p.
Supermarket giant Sainsbury (LON:SBRY) was given the same upgrade by Cantor Fitzgerald sending shares 2.8% higher to 267p.
In small caps, Nektan (LON:NKTN), which develops mobile gaming apps for other companies such as the Sun newspaper, has received a software and gaming licence for the UK. Shares climbed 8.8% to 178p.
Shares in Triad Group (LON:TRD) were on the rise after the company released end of year results for the year ended 31 March 2015.
Revenue rose to £23.5mln from £19.7mln and profit more than tripled to £0.46mln from £0.13mln. Shares climbed 45% to 22.5p.
Conversely, Redhall Group (LON:RHL) said revenue in the first half of the year dropped to £41.4mln from £50.6mln due to delays in manufacturing. Shares eased 6.9% to 10p.
Also falling was Sareum Holdings (LON:SAL) after more than 577mln shares from its most recent placing were admitted onto the market today. Shares eased 7.3% to 0.24p.