logo-loader

FTSE 100 lower despite Germany passing Greece deal

Published: 08:12 19 Aug 2015 EDT

athens-315838_1280_55d4736925f6c

London’s blue chip stocks were lower at lunch despite positive news from Greece as China concerns weigh on the market.

With 454 ‘yes’ votes, 113 dissenters and 18 abstainers the German parliament, the Bundestag, passed the third Greek bailout, seeing the deal clear the final major hurdle just in time for Greece’s ECB repayment tomorrow.

“Now all that is left is a successful Dutch vote later today, and a Eurogroup sign-off this evening, and Greece can expect the first €26 billion tranche of its €86 billion package to arrive very soon” Connor Campbell at spread-betting site Spreadex said.

The European markets committed to their falls, despite the successful progress of the German bailout vote, with the German Dax easing 1.2% to 10,787 while the Paris-based Cac40 lost 0.75% to 4,934.

The FTSE 100 Index dropped 66 points, 1%, points to 6,460 as traders worry over the state of the Chinese economy.

Analysts said the large number of Chinese retail investors will have been seriously stung by recent currency devaluation moves and may not be keen to get involved again for now.

“The Chinese equity markets may have ended on a positive note, but the erratic swings should be viewed with caution, and such a wide trading range tells us that China will not be stable for some time” David Madden at IG said.

On the corporate from, the troubled mining sector was under the spotlight as Glencore (LON:GLEN) reported. The shares fell 9.75p to 166.35p as the miner and commodity trader blamed the sharp fall in commodity prices for lower profits and said it would cap spending at US$5bn in 2016.

Sticking with the miners, a report this week suggested that Lonmin’s (LON:LMI) options to refinance its debt next year are getting tougher as the plunge in shares continues to deepen.

Its market cap is now US$163mln while its debt facilities in need of renegotiating next year are around US$563mln. Shares were a further 18.8% lower today to 26.8p.

In better news, Hikma Pharmaceuticals (LON:HIK) pared early losses to gain 86p to 2,486p by lunch as the drug group maintained its full year group revenue guidance at about 2% on a reported basis or 6% at constant currencies and kept its dividend flat despite lower first half revenue and profit.

In small caps, Sunrise Resources (LON:SRES) said it will kick-off drilling at its Bay State silver project in Nevada next week. It signed a deal with Boart Longyear to undertake the work.

One drill hole will specifically target an area which recently yielded “bonanza silver grades” in underground sampling. Shares were 39.5% higher at 0.3p.

Elsewhere, Insurance broker and consultant Jelf (LON:JLF) confirmed it may be the subject of a takeover by global firm Marsh Ltd. Shares surged 11.59% to stand at 231p as the market welcomed the news.

ARway.ai announces multiple new SaaS developer contracts in both the United...

ARway.ai (CSE:ARWY, OTCQB:ARWYF) Chief Executive Officer Evan Gappelberg joined Steve Darling from Proactive to announce multiple new SaaS developer sign-ups for its augmented reality experience platform, focusing on AR indoor navigation. These partnerships represent significant milestones in...

1 hour, 35 minutes ago