This is Money: Greece Continues to Weigh on Sentiment

From This is Money

The FTSE 100 Index, which started on the front foot in early trading, is 16 points lower at 5333 as the woes of Spain’s fourth-largest lender, Bankia, holds the wider eurozone crisis in focus.

'Overnight price action saw European equities begin their session on a positive footing, but have since pared these gains and are now in the red as investor sentiment waffles,' said  Scott Smith, Corporate Foreign Exchange Dealer at Western Union Business Solutions.

Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average is 0.2 per cent lower as the board of Bankia said it would meet with Government officials tomorrow.

The Spanish government, which has already taken a controlling stake in Bankia, said this week it would pump at least 9 billion euros (£7.2 billion) into the lender but added that more would be available if needed.

Aviva has lost hold of earlier gains despite Exane BNP Paribas upgrading the stock to outperform and saying it believed shares were too cheap after a recent poor run.

Shares are 0.7p lower at 267p, after the broker warned that it expected the insurer to cut its dividend. Fellow insurer Admiral also had a better performance, with shares rising 27p to 1111p.

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