FTSE100 heading south as German parliament approves Greece extension


(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) The approval of the German parliament for Greece's four month extension did little to push Britain's blue chips higher which was down around 13 points  at the time of writing.

The UK benchmark had touched an intraday high earlier but was at 6936 at lunch as traders digested a number of corporate earnings reports.

The Greek plan for the extension to the current package must still be ratified by Eurozone members after the country submitted its list of reforms as promised.

The biggest riser on Footsie was Standard Chartered (LON:STAN) up 3.53% to 101.5p while British Airways owner IAG was also gaining altitude - adding 3.04% to 576p.

The airline issued a bumper set of full-year numbers with annual pre-tax profit in 2014 jumped to €828mln while operating profits nearly doubled to reach more than €1bn.

It was enough for the airline group currently bidding for Irish carrier Aer Lingus to raise its outlook for this year by 20% - it now forecasts an operating profit of €2.2bn this year. 

Also up was Lloyds (LON:LLOY) to 79.40p a gain of 1.15% as investors welcomed news the partly state-owned lender would be  paying out a divi to shareholders for the first time since 2008.

It comes as lender still partly state-owned said it made a profit before tax of £1.8bn last year ahead of estimates and up from the £415mln achieved in 2013.

The UK government  - with its 23.9% holdings in the firm – is set to receive £130mln of the payment. Another big bank RBS (LON:RBS) was down however 3.21% to 374.2p after it reported this week its seventh consecutive full year loss.

On the losing front High Street bookie Willam Hill (LON:WMH) which lost 4.84% to 371.6p as buyers decided not to take a punt on shares as revenue was less than expected in its first quarter.

The firm said it had been hit by a big loss-making week driven by some football results.

But the group said it remained confident in its expectations for 2015.

A notable riser was junior pis iron ore group Baobab Resources (LON:BAO) whose flagship project is Tete in Mozanbique.

The firm is set to be taken over by its major shareholder African Minerals & Development.

AMDF subsidiary Redbird is offering 6p per share for the shares in Baobab it does not already own which values the group at £20.5mln. BAO shares surged 30.3% to 5.375p.

Also on the up was UK-focused mining group Wolf Minerals (LON:WLFE) which 3.42% to 18.875p as it revealed it had made significant progress in its first half as it works to open the first new metal mine in Britain for more than 45 years.

The Hemerdon tungsten project in Devon was 67% complete at the end of December and the project remains on track for the commissioning of the processing plant in the coming weeks.

According to the schedule for the contractor GR Engineering Services will hand over the project to Wolf during the third quarter.


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