London blue chips headed lower as concerns mounted over a Greek debt default.
Footsie shed 50 points to 6,735 as another round of talks over a potential Greece bailout collapsed over the weekend with a deal looking as far away as ever, with few conciliatory noises from Greek PM Alexis Tsipras.
“There is clearly still a gulf between Greece and European leaders,” Stan Shamu, analyst at spread betting firm IG.
“Additionally, Germany is said to be preparing for Greece bankruptcy.”
According to reports, the latest round of negotiations lasted less than an hour on what the European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker called a “last ditch effort.”
Risers could be counted on the fingers, with the best performers the perceived safe havens of gold and silver.
Randgold Resources (LON:RRS) was up 23p at 4,630p and silver miner Fresnillo (LON:FRES) 7.5p at 744p.
Airlines were at the bottom of the pile with a downgrade of Easyjet (LON:EZJ) by RBC Capital, sending the Europe-focused carrier down 39p to 1,547p, while British Airways owner IAG (LON:IAG) fell 1.7% to 509p.
In other broker news, highly rated specialist plastics group Victrex (LON:VCT) had its target price slashed by 150p and a ‘hold’ rating put on it by Deutsche Bank. Shares dropped more than 2% to 1,949p.
Away from the index, shares in wine merchant Majestic (LON:MJW) slid as it reported a 22.5% fall in pre-tax profit for the year to end March but its new boss said he was confident momentum could be restored. Shares eased 4.2% to 421p.
Meanwhile, there were some smart movers among the small caps.
Serial entrepreneur Luke Johnson taking a stake in Eclectic Bars (LON:BAR) and becoming executive chairman sent shares in the bar group soaring 32% to 64p.
Johnson is a veteran of restaurant and food chains having cut his teeth at Pizza Express, before moving onto Giraffe, Patsisserie Holdings (LON:CAKE) and artisan bakery chain Gail’s.
Asia–focused theme park tickets group Galasys (LON:GLS) jumped almost 4% to 28.8p as it picked up a £500,000 contract for a new water park in China.
Galantas Gold (LON:GAL) continued to climb on the award of a permit for its mine in Ulster, adding another 18% to 7.25p today.
Sabien Technology (LON:SNT) had a harder time as it warned order delays would mean bigger losses and lower revenues than expected.
A new strategy of free pilots is being implemented to try to reverse the sales slippage. Shares tumbled 20% to 8p.
Orosur Mining (LON:OMI) expects to maintain current levels of production from its San Gregorio mine in Uruguay in the year ahead.
Investors had hoped to see improvement in production, which was 53,485 oz of gold in the year just ended. Shares lost 5.52% to 8.5p.