LONDON (ShareCast) - Banks and mining stocks were providing a lift to equity markets on Tuesday morning as risk appetite increased on the back of last night's Greek bailout deal.

After countless delays, Eurozone finance ministers finally inked out an agreement on Greece, giving the green light to the disbursement of the next €43.7bn bailout tranche to the bailed out country (€34.4bn will be issued next month and the remaining monies will be disbursed in the first quarter of 2013).

Athens has committed to reduce its debt load by €40bn with the debt target set to 124% of GDP by 2020, compared to the previous 120%. Although the new goal is less ambitious than earlier IMF demands, Greece has promised to bring its debt below 110% by 2022.

"While a watered down deal was more or less expected (and therefore is already to a huge degree priced into share prices), at the same time this agreement/compromise does remove a substantial amount of uncertainty, especially as Greece’s membership in the euro for the next few months is concerned," said Markus Huber, head of German HNW trading at ETX Capital.

"Therefore although positive for the markets, upside potential should be limited instead the next big hurdle for the markets will be the fast approaching fiscal cliff in the US with attention expected to quickly shift to negotiations between Democrats and Republicans," he said.

FTSE 100: Banks and miners in demand

Banking peers Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Barclays were registering decent gains early on, along with resource groups EVRAZ, ENRC and Polymetal as investors built positions in 'riskier' assets. RBS was benefitting this morning from an rating upgrade by UBS to 'buy'. Meanwhile, Barclays Capital raised its target price for both RBS and Lloyds, helping provide a lift to shares.

In contrast, Aberdeen Asset Management was among the worst performers of the morning after Citigroup downgraded its recommendation for the stock to 'neutral'.

Mining giant Xstrata gained after saying that its Antapcaccay mine in southern Peru started producing commercial grade copper at the start of the month and has already delivered its first shipment to customers.

Utilities group Severn Trent fell after underlying profit before interest and tax fell 2.6% in the first half, reflecting planned increased investment in networks and customers service in its water division.

Vodafone, the telecoms giant involved in the development of the M-Pesa service in Africa, rose after announcing that from Tuesday 27th the service's Kenyan customers will have access to interest bearing saving accounts and have the ability to take out small loans through a new service, called M-Shwari.

FTSE 250: KCOM and Mitchells & Butler disappoint

Broadband and communications provider KCOM fell after reporting a slight fall in revenue and a large rise in net debt in the first half, its first increase in net debt in four years following seven consecutive six-month periods of reduction.

Mitchells & Butlers, the UK's largest operator of managed restaurants and pub, was unwanted after noting it had made a slow start to the new financial year, partly because of unseasonably warm weather in the same period in 2011.

British defence-equipment maker Chemring, which scaled back full-year profit guidance earlier this month, surged this morning after saying that expectations for the full year remain unchanged since its last update.

Bank note printer De La Rue gained after reporting that both revenues and profits were up in the first half. However, the compay noted a more challenging paper market as competitors upped production.

Materials science firm Cookson Group rose after saying it expects the demerger of its Performance Materials division will become effective next month, after shareholders voted in favour of the shake-up at Monday's annual general meeting.


FTSE 100 - Risers
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 294.80p +3.40%
Evraz (EVR) 244.50p +2.69%
Aviva (AV.) 349.30p +2.16%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 46.03p +2.07%
Standard Life (SL.) 311.30p +1.70%
Polymetal International (POLY) 1,091.00p +1.58%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 172.80p +1.41%
Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,080.00p +1.41%
Compass Group (CPG) 726.50p +1.40%
Schroders (SDR) 1,603.00p +1.39%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
ITV (ITV) 96.00p -0.83%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,551.00p -0.32%
Aberdeen Asset Management (ADN) 335.00p -0.30%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,590.00p -0.25%
National Grid (NG.) 713.00p -0.14%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 114.80p -0.09%
Pearson (PSON) 1,183.00p -0.08%
Standard Chartered (STAN) 1,436.50p -0.07%
Kingfisher (KGF) 276.10p -0.04%
BT Group (BT.A) 226.80p -0.04%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Kenmare Resources (KMR) 33.27p +4.92%
Chemring Group (CHG) 241.00p +4.78%
Savills (SVS) 433.50p +2.85%
Informa (INF) 415.00p +2.34%
Dialight (DIA) 1,107.00p +2.12%
Yule Catto & Co (YULC) 171.10p +1.85%
St. Modwen Properties (SMP) 216.00p +1.84%
Supergroup (SGP) 595.00p +1.71%
ICAP (IAP) 295.80p +1.65%
Ferrexpo (FXPO) 211.80p +1.63%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
KCOM Group (KCOM) 69.00p -3.23%
IP Group (IPO) 108.20p -2.79%
Mitchells & Butlers (MAB) 322.50p -2.57%
Rank Group (RNK) 145.90p -2.21%
COLT Group SA (COLT) 103.00p -1.53%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 351.20p -1.35%
Ruspetro (RPO) 85.00p -1.33%
Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) 34.50p -1.15%
Perform Group (PER) 389.90p -1.04%
Centamin (DI) (CEY) 60.00p -0.99%

BC

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