London’s blue chip stocks opened very flat as investors wait to find out if Greece’s bailout terms will be passed through its parliament.
The vote, due at 8pm GMT, is expected to be passed, however reports suggest Interntaional Monetary Fund (IMF) chair Christine Lagarde has threatened to scupper the Greece bailout deal.
"The dramatic deterioration in debt sustainability points to the need for debt relief on a scale that would need to go well beyond what has been under consideration to date,” said the IMF in a confidential report.
The uncertainty has hovered over markets, and Bernard Aw at IG says there is “there is still an evenly split risk of the deal falling apart.”
Meanwhile, in the USA Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen is to address Congress later on today.
The Fed chair said last Friday that she expects to raise interest rates this year, and reiterated that the pace of increases will be gradual.
In the UK, the FTSE 100 opened 2 points lower to 6,751 with Burberry (LON:BRBY) holding the index back.
The upmarket fashion house reported higher first quarter revenue and sales but said Asia and Hong Kong dragged on the numbers. Shares eased 26p to 1,594p.
Away from the index, Entertainment One (LON:WTO) was a big faller after Marwyn Value Investors sold 9% of the company at 330p per share via a placing.
Shares had been above 360p but slipped back on the news, sitting at 326p this morning, 10% lower than yesterday’s close.
Meanwhile, JD Wetherspoon (LON:JDW) chairman Tim Martin used the company’s trading update to attack the governments new ‘living wage’ scheme.
He said it gives supermarkets a further advantage and said it is “putting unsustainable pressure on many pubs.” Shares dropped 6% to 724p.
Meanwhile, AGA Rangemaster Group (LON:AGA) has agreed to be taken over by US kitchen product company Middleby for £129mln. Shares climbed 19.4% to 181p.
In small caps, rugby club Saracens chairman Nigel Wray, increased his stake in e-sports competition expert Gfinity (LON:GFIN) above 14%. Shares rose more than 5% to 23p.
The big gainer of the morning was Mosman Oil and Gas (LON:MSMN) up 55% to 3p.
There is no news out at the moment and typically internet bulletin boards saw speculation, guesstimation and naturally enough a spikey comment or two.
For now, let’s just say there are more buyers than sellers.
Leading the morning’s fallers was Black Sea Property (LON:BKSA) which lost 33% to 0.1p.
The fund is to raise £1.5mln before expenses through a placing of 152,000,000 new ordinary shares at 1p per share. Shares will be suspended from tomorrow.