FTSE pulls back ahead of Greek 'deadline'

UK stocks fell on Monday morning, pulling back following the strong end to last week, with Greece once again in focus as government talks enter a critical stage.

After a meeting last night between the three parties of Greece's coalition government, prime minister Lucas Papademos announced that they had agreed on "basic issues". However, Greek paper Ekathimerini has reported that the two smaller party heads remain opposed to excessive austerity and that talks will continue today. Greek leaders met again this morning with an 11:00 deadline in Athens to reach a final deal. A government official later denied the existence of a hard deadline today, however. As the talks dragged on, investors took profits, with the FTSE 100 down 0.5% at 5,873 in ...