Market overview: Greek ratings cut weighs Footsie down

LONDON (ShareCast) - 1630: Close Unsurprisingly, stocks finished the day lower, hit by an announcement from Fitch Ratings that it had downgraded Greece's debt rating to 'C', from 'CCC', while the short-term rating has also been affirmed at 'C'. Elsewhere, a survey by research group MindMetre revealed that business confidence is growing, with the number of UK companies planning a rise in their marketing budget leaping when compared to last year. In company news, Vedanta Resources (EUREX: VR9F.EX - news) spent much of the day firmly in the bottom spot, pulling back after yesterday's 7% surge on the back of speculation that it is looking to merge its two Indian subsidiaries, Sterlite and Sesa Goa (BSE: SESAGOA.BO - news) . Rexam (Dusseldorf: 948922.DU - news) finished the day in the top spot as investors welcome the packaging maker's plans to spin off its personal care business. FTSE 100 (Euronext: VFTSE.NX - news) down 12 to 5,917. 1615: LCH Clearnet cuts margin requirement for long positions in Irish bonds to 15% from 25%. FTSE 100 down 6 to 5,922. 1559: Rexam is leading gains on the FTSE 100 on Wednesday, as investors welcome the packaging maker's plans to spin off its personal care business. A motley assortmemt of companies is following in its wake. These are outsourcing specialist Capita, engineering outfit Meggitt (Xetra: 395760.DE - news) and BG Group (Hamburg: BGO.HM - news) . Commenting on the BoE minutes published this morning economists at Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) are writing that "(...) whereas we and the consensus had thought any expressions of dissent would have been in favour of a lower amount, in fact Adam Posen and David Miles dissented in favour of a £75bn expansion (...) we do not view the minutes as challenging our policy forecast that there is likely to be no QE extension in May, and so more downside news will be needed to prompt a further increase. The dissent revealed in today's minutes suggests that, in the absence of downside news, a split vote in May is likely (...)." FTSE 100 is down 7 to 5,922. 1450: According to the blog of Sky News City editor Mark Kleinman, RBS (LSE: RBS.L - news) is to give its investment banking staff £395m in bonuses for 2011. While this news will probably spark further outrage at the level of remuneration given in the sector, the amount is some 60 percent lower than the bonuses given to the unit last year. Shares in RBS are now down 3.3 per cent ahead of its full-year results due tomorrow morning. Lloyds, which is to publish its results on Friday, is down 1.1 per cent. FTSE 100 down 16 at 5,912. 1336: Vedanta is still the largest percentage faller on the top share index after RBC (MCX: RBCI.ME - news) weighed in with a downgrade of the company to "sector perform" from "outperform". Also weighing on the benchmark index is a downgrade from Bank of America Merrill Lynch on Tesco (LSE: TSCO.L - news) , to underperform from neutral. Deutsche Bank (Xetra: 514000 - news) has also lowered its view on Home Retail, an action which is also weighing on shares of Next (Xetra: 779551 - news) and Marks&Spencer. FTSE 100 down 22 to 5,906. 1109: The Footsie is now trading at its worst levels of the day despite a strong performance by energy and oil stocks. Vedanta Resources is leading the decline, falling 5.3%, pulling back after yesterday's 7% surge on the back of speculation that it is looking to merge its two Indian subsidiaries, Sterlite and Sesa Goa. Credit Suisse (NYSEArca: CSMA - news) has said today that "any progress on restructuring or minority buy-outs would be a strong positive" but any such move wouldn't be easy. The broker highlighted Vedanta's attempt in 2008 to restructure KCM and Sterlite which met "significant resistance" and did not complete. Ex-dividend stocks Reckitt Benckiser (LSE: RB.L - news) , Barclays and Carnival (NYSE: CCL - news) are also weighing on the blue chip index. In other news, minutes of the MPC (KOSDAQ: 050540.KQ - news) meeting are out and they show that while members voted unanimously to keep interest rates at 0.5%, two members (Posen and Miles) argued in favour of increasing its asset purchase programme by £75bn, as opposed to the £50bn finally approved. FTSE 100 down 23 at 5,905. 1024: Footsie (FTSE: ^FTSE - news) remains in the red but is keeping its head above 5,900. FTSE 100 is down 19 at 5,908. Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) 's B shares are down slightly after the company announced its intention to bid just under a billion pounds for Cove Energy (Berlin: LPC.BE - news) , as it seeks to get its hands on the AIM-listed company's liquefied natural gas assets in Mozambique. 0905: Footsie has started on the back foot, despite a warm reception to results from packaging firm Rexam and a bit of buying interest in part-nationalised lenders Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds ahead of results this week. In contrast, Barclays is keeping company with the laggards. FTSE 100 is down 7 at 5,921.