FTSE suffers early hit due to fresh eurozone fears

Fresh fears over the eurozone debt crisis hit sentiment on the London market today after the EU failed to agree a bail out deal for stricken Greece.

The FTSE 100 Index fell 12.3 points to 5735.8 after eurozone finance ministers were unable to reach a deal to give Greece the next tranche of its emergency aid, despite nearly 12 hours of talks in Brussels.

Among stocks, there were share falls for top tier firms Compass and Johnson Matthey after their results, with the firms down 14.5p to 694.5p and 115p to 2210p respectively.

Falls for Compass – the world’s biggest catering company – came despite news of a 7% rise in underlying pre-tax profits.

Platinum refiner Johnson Matthey was under pressure after it reported a 6% drop in half-year profits following a fall in metal prices.

Car parts and bicycle retailer Halfords was lower in the FTSE 250 Index, down 4% or 12.2p to 332.9p, following interims revealing a 23.4% slump in underlying pre-tax profits to £41.9m (€52m) despite a second quarter sales recovery.

Newspaper stocks were in the spotlight after the creation of a new regional newspaper company was announced – called Local World – which will buy Dail Mail and General Trust’s Northcliffe business.

DMGT, which will receive £52.5m (€65.2m) for the business and a 38.7% shareholding in the new group, fell 1% or 4.6p to 468.4p.

Trinity Mirror, which will also take a 20% shareholding in Local World, rose 3% or 2.6p to 81.9p.