No respite for leading UK shares

Markets suffered further falls yesterday after Greece failed to patch together a coalition government, triggering another election next month.

The FTSE 100 index fell 27.9 to 5,437.6, building on its 2% slide on Monday, as Greek president Karolos Papoulias said a caretaker government would be formed today. Another election is expected in the middle of next month.

Worries over Greece saw Britain’s leading share index reverse earlier gains, driven by 0.5% growth in Germany’s economy in the first quarter keeping the eurozone out of recession by the slimmest margin.

Heavily weighted miners and financial stocks remained unsettled, with Vedanta Resources down 40p to £10.13, Kazakhmys off 30p at 707p, the Royal Bank of Scotland down 0.5p at 21.3p, and Barclays 3.7p lower at 186.1p.

Insurer Aviva, which is due to publish an update later this week, was down nearly 3% at 282.4p.

Footsie fallers also included International Consolidated Airlines down 9.5p at 149.9p and Man Group off 3.2p at 79.9p.

Security service group G4S was among the biggest risers – up 8.4p at 275.2p – after it reported firstquarter revenue growth of 7.5%, helped by its contract to provide thousands of staff for this summer’s Olympics.

There was an improvement of 1.5%, or 15p to £10.41 for Smiths Group after it said strong trading at its oil and gas service business John Crane had kept it on track for underlying e a r ni ngs of a r ound £550million in the current financial year.

Btshares benefited from a broker upgrade after Espirito removed its “sell” rating in the wake of well received annual results last week. The shares added 2.4p to 207.3p.

Carnival, ahead 67p at £20.34, and Polymetal International up 14p at 808.5p were among other big blue-chip risers.

Steven Mckay, of investment manager and financial- planning specialist Brewin Dolphin in Aberdeen, noted Johnston Press 1.7% higher at 6p, Enquest rising 1.2% to 122.75p and Weir Group adding 0.7% to £15.21.

Firstgroup shed 3.5% to 197.95p and Premier Oil was off 2.3% at 329.4p.