London’s blue-chips and mid-caps have gone their separate ways today, with the former buoyed by hopes of an imminent deal between Greece and its creditors.
Greece’s pay-masters have handed it revised terms for a proposed bailout, much to the consternation of Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who has already lost face by making numerous concessions.
Nevertheless, the FTSE 100 was up 25 at 6,860, with supermarkets and oil majors to the fore in the lunchtime session.
Sainsbury's gained 6.7p at 275.9p as broker Societe Generale upped its rating on the supermarket group. Investors in rival grocers took heart, boosting Tesco (LON:TSCO) by 2.5p to 218.75p while Morrisons (LON:MRW) enjoyed a rare spell at the top of the Footsie totem pole, rising 2.8% to 185p.
Broker comment also pumped up integrated oil major Royal Dutch Shell (LON:RDSB), which climbed 2% to 1,925p as Deutsche Bank moved from a neutral position to a bullish one.
BG Group (LON:BG.), the subject of an agreed bid from Shell, rose 1.8% to 1,108p in sympathy.
The FTSE 250 is off 60 points at 17,937, despite a 1.1% gain for transport group Stagecoach (LON:SGC), which said this morning that more competition and falling oil prices had hit its UK and North American buses and coaches.
Speciality chemicals group Elementis (LON:ELM) has taken a bath, shedding 49p at 263p, after it said “temporary market dynamics” experienced in the second quarter will most likely have a negative influence on the full-year result.
Among small caps, Ascent Resources (LON:AST) lived up to its name, surging 42% to 0.22p on news it had had won an environmental permit to install a gas gathering and separation station at its Petišovci field in Slovenia.
Alaskan oil explorer 88 Energy (LON:88E) spurted 0.14p to 0.87p after saying it had agreed a US$50mln funding deal with Bank of America.
Also on the up was Russia-focused Eurasia Mining (LON:EUA), which ticked up 0.125p to 1.08p as Moscow provisionally approved its application for a licence at its West Kytlim platinum project.
Among the laggards, Mosman Oil & Gas (LON:MSMN) dropped 0.375p to 2.75p as the New Zealand and Australia-focused oil explorer raised £400,000 through a share placing and subscription.
Premier African Minerals (LON:PREM) retreated 11.8% to 2.43p as finance house Darwin Strategic took possession of 35mln new Premier shares as a result of exercising some warrants at 1.25p a throw.
Meanwhile, across the pond, US markets are set to open lower with US investors taking a less sanguine view of last minute wrangling over bailout terms for Greece.