After falling to its lowest level since January, the FTSE 100 staged a mini-recovery to close the day barely changed.
It was of course Greece which dominated much of the day, with investors growing more fearful the country would be forced to default and possibly leave the eurozone. However an opening rise on Wall Street - ahead of Wednesday’s US Federal Reserve meeting which will be scoured for clues about the timing of any interest rate rise - pulled European markests back from their worst levels. There was even a sprinkling of hope that a last minute deal could be reached between Greece and its creditors before the money runs out, and despite some defiant rhetoric from Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras in parliament.
So the FTSE 100 finished the day down just 0.42 points at 6710.10, after earlier falling as low as 6656. Germany’s Dax and France’s Cac both closed up around 0.5% while the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 75 points by the time London closed. But the Athens market never did recover, closing down 4.77%.
Tobacco companies were among the leading risers after positive comments from analysts at Credit Suisse. British American Tobacco was 99.5p better at £35.11 while Imperial Tobacco added 71p to £32.46.
Defensive stocks were, not surprisingly, in demand. Centrica climbed 5.4p to 267.4p, National Grid rose 9.4p to 858p - helped by a positive note from Morgan Stanley - and GlaxoSmithKline added 15p to £13.66.
Mining shares fell back as commodity prices lost ground, with Anglo American down 22.2p at 972.2p and Rio Tinto 61p lower at 2745.5p.
Among the mid-caps Ladbrokes rose 5.1p to 122.1p as Morgan Stanley moved from equal weight to overweight and raised its price target from 135p to 150p.
Elsewhere UTV Media, the owner of TalkSport radio and television stations in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, edged 1p lower to 163p despite talk of a read-across from a possible bid for a rival channel. Peel Hunt analyst Alex DeGroote said:
Various Irish press reports suggest Liberty Global is the frontrunner to buy TV3, the Republic of Ireland commercial channel, from Doughty Hanson. We have seen TV3 valuation estimates of above €100m. This is way ahead of our original expectations of €70m-£80m....and endorses the attractiveness of broadcast assets in the Republic of Ireland. This is helpful for UTV Media, the owner of UTV Ireland (which is behind expectations).
