With Eurozone troubles continuing to provide a drag, the Footsie had tumbled 1% by midday on Friday to 5,366, an intraday level not seen since last Thursday. This is now the fifth consecutive day of falls for London's blue chip index, which has steadily declined from last Friday's closing price of 5,545 (-3.2%).

With disagreements between Germany and Britain being brought into the limelight today, an Italian vote of confidence due later in the session and negative comments from Mario Draghi circulating the press, market sentiment continues to be weighed down by the lack of progress being made in solving the crisis.

CAMERON, MERKEL TO MEET. DRAGHI EXPRESSES CONCERNS

Later on today, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron is to meet with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel amid reports that Germany has laid the ground to stymie any plans the British government may have to hold a referendum on an overhaul of the terms of engagement with the European Union. According to the Daily Telegraph, which has access to a leaked memo, the German foreign office has drawn up radical plans for an intrusive new European body that will be able to take over the economies of beleaguered Eurozone countries.

According to The Financial Times, Cameron would be prepared to back Merkel's plans to strengthen economic union in the Eurozone in exchange for safeguards for the City of London from European legislation.

Meanwhile, the new president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, has showed his frustration at the lack of action taken by Eurozone leaders to implement policies that were decided on over a year and half ago and were meant to stem the current financial crisis. In his introductory remarks at the 21st Frankfurt European Banking Congress, he outlines the weakening outlook for the region and insists that Eurozone governments have the responsibility of creating a "much more robust economic governance of the union going forward".

These comments are hitting the newswires just as the ECB faces increasing pressure to intervene in the sovereign debt markets and as several Eurozone countries are seeing their bond yields climb to record highs, with markets cringing in fear at the prospect that another bailout might be necessary for the likes of Italy or Spain

In other news, Italy's lower house of Parliament will hold a confidence vote for the technocratic government formed by Mario Monti. The new government already passed yesterday's confidence vote in the Senate by a margin of 281 votes to one.

CAPITA, MINERS WEIGH ON FOOTSIE. CHEMRING PLUMMETS

Capita, the business outsourcing company, led the fallers after saying it expects to see organic revenue growth decline 7% in 2011. Investec cuts its target price on the stock from 725p to 630p as a result, saying that "the expected pick-up in the second half is clearly not coming through at the levels hoped for earlier in the year."

The miners were also out of favour on the back of worries about the global economy. Fresnillo, BHP Billiton, Antofagasta, Anglo American and Xstrata were among the worst performers of the day so far. However, sector peer Rio Tinto fell by a less 0.9% after increasing its offer for uranium developer Hathor Exploration.

Military decoy flare and mine detection firm Chemring was under fire falling over 16% after it said unexpected delays in customer orders means full-year revenues will be around 5% below the board's expectations, while operating profit will be shy of market projections.

Another big mover was marine, oil and gas services firm Hamworthy, which jumped 20% after announcing late last night that it is in advanced discussions with Finnish peer Wartsila Corporation regarding a 825p-a-share cash offer.

BC

FTSE 100 - Risers
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,393.00p +0.87%
BT Group (BT.A) 186.10p +0.65%
International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (IAG) 142.40p +0.64%
Smith & Nephew (SN.) 581.50p +0.26%
SSE (SSE) 1,289.00p +0.23%
Amec (AMEC) 909.00p +0.22%
RSA Insurance Group (RSA) 107.20p +0.19%
ICAP (IAP) 341.60p +0.12%
Pearson (PSON) 1,103.00p +0.09%
Royal Dutch Shell 'B' (RDSB) 2,300.00p +0.09%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
Capita Group (CPI) 638.50p -4.34%
ARM Holdings (ARM) 597.00p -4.10%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,697.00p -3.52%
Weir Group (WEIR) 1,805.00p -2.49%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,862.50p -2.31%
Inmarsat (ISAT) 426.90p -2.27%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,079.00p -2.18%
Glencore International (GLEN) 404.25p -2.09%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,344.50p -2.07%
Xstrata (XTA) 939.40p -2.02%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Premier Foods (PFD) 5.29p +17.43%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 86.35p +6.60%
Allied Gold Mining (ALD) 174.00p +4.19%
New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 441.40p +3.42%
Cable & Wireless Worldwide (CW.) 21.17p +3.27%
Amlin (AML) 317.00p +3.09%
Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 201.10p +3.02%
Regus (RGU) 84.95p +2.60%
JD Wetherspoon (JDW) 429.90p +2.07%
Mothercare (MTC) 129.80p +1.96%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Chemring Group (CHG) 404.00p -16.53%
Supergroup (SGP) 554.50p -6.18%
Exillon Energy (EXI) 288.40p -3.77%
Afren (AFR) 85.25p -3.67%
International Personal Finance (IPF) 197.20p -3.66%
AZ Electronic Materials SA (WI) (AZEM) 235.20p -3.61%
Gem Diamonds Ltd. (DI) (GEMD) 213.30p -3.57%
Millennium & Copthorne Hotels (MLC) 383.00p -3.53%
Northgate (NTG) 230.00p -3.48%
Ultra Electronics Holdings (ULE) 1,491.00p -3.12%

Related share prices
Anglo American (AAL) share price
BHP Billiton (BLT) share price
Rio Tinto (RIO) share price
Capita (CPI) share price
Antofagasta (ANTO) share price
Chemring Group (CHG) share price
Xstrata (XTA) share price
Hamworthy (HMY) share price
Fresnillo (FRES) share price