FTSE edges lower despite Wall Street gains

The FTSE ignored large gains on Wall Street overnight, falling 0.35% to 5,748.45 in early trading.

All eyes today will be on Ireland and its efforts to agree a bailout deal worth more than €80bn (£68bn).

Rolls Royce continued its fall of early yesterday, softening slightly to 603p, on news it may have to adjust its Airbus 380 engines further.

SAB Miller gave back some of the gains it made yesterday when its latest results beat analysts' expectations. It was down 0.8% at £21.39.

Other fallers included Hammerson, off 2.1% at 402.4p after Morgan Stanley downgraded it to ‘equal weight', and Capita Group, 2.2% lower at 674.5p.

The main gainer was Autonomy Corporation, up 2.6% at £14.36, as rumours of M&A swirled around it.

Overnight in the US the Dow Jones rose by 1.6% to 11,181.23 points after a healthy IPO for General Motors and optimism around the likely rescue of Irish banks.

GM rose 3.6% to $34.19 and turnover of its shares accounted for almost 25% of the volume on the New York Stock Exchange.

Asian markets reacted positively to the likelihood of a deal in Ireland today, and a positive US manufacturing report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

In Asia, the Nikkei 225 climbed a modest 0.1% to 10,022.39 points.