Markets across Europe rocketed higher as a marathon 17-hour session finally produced a debt deal between Greece and its creditors.
Details were sketchy but European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker’s comment “There will be no Grexit” was enough to put fifty points on the FTSE100 to 6,723.
Other European stocks rose sharply in relief that any kind of deal had been agreed, though tit will still have to be ratified by a number of European parliaments.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the eurozone group of finance ministers, said a €50bn (£36bn) asset disposal fund would be established, half of which would be used to recapitalise the country’s banks.
Alexis Tsipras, Greece’s increasingly embattled PM, also has to sell the package to his own left-wing party with commentators this morning suggesting it may be tough for him to survive the asset pledge.
Germany made few concessions during the lengthy talks and reportedly insisted that €50bn of assets being used to pay down Greece debts.
Almost all of companies on the FTSE 100 were in the blue, with the exception of miners all of which occupied the bottom seven places.
Gold miner Randgold (LON:RRS) and silver producer Fresnillo (LON:FRES) were worst hit, though the falls were mild at around 1%.
British Airways owner IAG (LON:IAG) was the best of the risers.
Among the small caps, there was some takeover movment this morning as Platform Specialty Products (LON:PAH) made an agreed bid for rival speciality chemicals firm Alent (LON:ALNT)
The 503p bid is 49% higher than Friday’s closing price and values Alent at £1.35bn.
Nostrum Oil & Gas (LOM:NOG) meanwhile has made an approach to Tethys Petroleum (LON:TPL, TSE:TPL) regarding a potential acquisition of the company.
A share based transaction, proposed at a notional 21.85 Canadian cents per share, represents a premium of around 15% to the terms of a deal on the table between Tethys and Kazakh group AGR Energy. Tethys shares rose by 23% to 9.54p.
Anglo Asian (LON:AAZ) shares soared as it posted record gold output from its Gedabek mine in Azerbaijan.
Output for the six months to end June came in at 35,938 ounces, with 23,436 ounces from the agitation leach plant, 12,488 ounces from heap leach operations and 14 ounces from SART, the miner said. Shares jumped 26% to 7.56p.