London’s blue-chip stocks opened higher this morning despite another setback in the Greek bailout talks.
The latest set of talks between Greece and its creditors were shelved again and desperate EU leader have arranged an urgent meeting of to discuss the situation has been scheduled for Monday.
Overnight, American markets were higher with the Dow Jones average rising 180 points to 18,116; the S&P 500 adding 21 points at 2,121 and the Nasdaq Composite putting on 88 points at 5,133.
Meanwhile, Asian markets were mostly firmer, with the notable exception of Shanghai, where the Composite index tumbled 6%, taking its loss for the week to 13%, the biggest weekly fall for seven years.
Back in the UK, the FTSE 100 was 16 points higher to 6,723 in early deals.
Shares in drug-maker Hikma Pharmaceuticals (LON:HIK) surged ahead following an upgrade by CitiGroup.
The broker changed its stance on the stock, raising its rating to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’ sending shares 105p or 5.5% higher to 2,000p.
Meanwhile, lagging behind the rest of the pack were the miners.
The news that the Shanghai Composite recorded its worst week of losses for seven years hit the miners as China represents a large proportion of demand for metals.
Glencore (LON:GLEN) fell the furthest, easing 1% to 273p while Anglo American (LON:AAL) eased 9.5p to 981p and BHP Billiton (LON:BLT) lost 12p to 1,321p.
Away from the index, telecoms company Colt Group (LON:COLT) was the biggest riser on news it has received a bid from Fidelity to buy the business.
The offer is for 190p per share, but the independent directors of Colt said the offer undervalued the company. Shares climbed 20% to 188p.
Conversely, various directors and members of Card Factory’s (LON:CARD) senior management team are selling, in aggregate, 7.4mln shares, representing around 2.2% of the Card Factory shares in issue. Shares dropped 6.2% on the news to 337p.
In small caps, CloudTag (LON:CTAG) has teamed up with mobile analytics company Adience Solution to gain access to tens of millions of users.
The deal has no money upfront but will see both companies receive a proportion of the revenue created. Shares rose 11% to almost 3.5p.
Meanwhile, Rurelec (LON:RUR) reported a loss of £3mln in 2014 despite a marked improvement from its power business in Argentina. Shares eased 14% to 2.9p on the news.