London’s blue chip stocks opened lower again this morning as concerns over Greece's debt situation weighed on sentiment in Europe.
Reports suggest that Greece will not present new proposals at a meeting of European finance ministers today, suggesting it is drawing a line in the sand in the negotiations.
Prime minister Alexis Tsipras has said creditors have made unrealistic demands in recent negotiations but time is running out to find common ground between the two sides.
Overnight US benchmarks all fell back while in Asia, the story was similar, with fears of a Greek exit from the Eurozone prompting selling.
In the UK, the FTSE 100 was 27 points lower to 6,683 with Costa Coffee owner Whitbread (LON:WTB) near the bottom of the index despite a good start to the year.
Like-for-like sales rose 4.3% in the first quarter but were below analysts’ expectations of 5% and shares lost 25p to 5,015p.
Meanwhile, leading the index was British American Tobacco (LON:BATS) after German bank Berenberg puffed up its target price to 4,000p from 3,850p and repeated a 'buy' rating. Shares rose 2.6% to 3,500p on the news.
Also higher was drug giant GlaxoSmithKline (LON:GSK) after reports it could become the latest takeover target in the pharmaceutical industry emerged yesterday.
Dealers were speculating that Glaxo may face an approach from Roche of Switzerland or Johnson & Johnson of the US at about 1900p per share, valuing it at more than £92billion. Shares rose 12p to 1,363p.
Away from the index, housebuilder Crest Nicholson (LON:CRST) posted higher half-year sales and profits but warned that it was facing a labour shortage. Shares lost 2.5% to 530p.
In broker news, betting shop chain Ladbrokes (LON:LAD) was boosted by an upgrade by Morgan Stanley.
The US broker bumped it up to ‘overweight’ from ‘equal weight’ sending shares 2.5% higher to 120p.
In small caps, LekOil (LON:LEK) received ministerial consent for its acquisition of a 40% interest in the Otakikpo Marginal Field.
It comes after LekOil struck a deal with Green Energy for the project in May last year. Shares climbed 10% to 26p on the news.
Elsewhere, Europa Oil & Gas (LON:EOG) was higher after consultant ERC Equipoise estimated the AIM-listed explorer’s 15% interest in three prospects within frontier exploration licence 3/13 to be an unrisked US$1.6bn. Shares climbed more than 7% to 8.7p.
Conversely, Sound Oil (LON:SOU) has decided to abandon the second Nervesa appraisal well without performing side-track operations. Shares lost 11% to 14p.
Meanwhile, Mosman Oil and Gas (LON:MSMN) has determined its preferred drill location on the Murchison permit in New Zealand’s South Island but drilling is conditional on funding, land access and regulatory consent. Shares eased 10% to 3.1p.
Boiler and energy expert Flowgroup (LON:FLOW) was the biggest faller in early deals, however, after it announced a substantial reduction in the number of boilers it expects to install this year. Shares dropped 34% to 15.8p.