The FTSE 100 opened flat on Thursday morning, following gains made yesterday after the news that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is boosting its lending capacity by at least $500bn.

Lifting sentiment was a source from the Greek finance ministry, who told French news agency Agence France-Presse that a positive result from discussions between the government and private creditors is expected by this weekend. Debt auctions in France and Spain, two sovereigns recently downgraded by Standard & Poor's, will be closely watched.

Meanwhile, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has said that European leaders' moves to create a 'fiscal compact' are a "breakthrough". Speaking at an avert in Abu Dhabi, he said "It is now important to swiftly implement all of those decisions to put the euro-area economy back on course."

In domestic news, Nationwide's consumer confidence index for the month of December slipped to 38 points, from 40 the month before. That is the second lowest level on record since the survey started in 2004. The main factor behind the retreat was a drop in households' expectations for the first half of the year. The consumer expectations sub-index fell to the 50 point mark, from 55 in November.

Nevertheless, analysts at Barclays Capital said this morning that inflation appears to be on a "clear downward trend", easing pressures on households. "We expect the outlook for consumers to stabilise in coming months, barring further downside news, and as a result we think that consumer confidence is probably at or close to its trough."

BANKS RISE, CARNIVAL BOUNCES BACK

Bankings stocks were providing a lift early on, with Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, Lloyds and HSBC among the best performers.

Cruise operator Carnival was the high riser though, bouncing back after its slump on Monday following the grounding of one of its ships off the coast of Italy.

Heading the other way were the miners with Anglo American, Fresnillo, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto falling into the red.

Drugs giant AstraZeneca was out of favour after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it wants more clinical data on its dapagliflozin treatment for type 2 diabetes in adults to assess the "benefit-risk" profile of the drug.

SABMiller fell after saying that it continues to struggle in Europe and North America, which held back lager volume growth to 3% in the third quarter. Publishing group Pearson was also lower despite upping its earnings guidance for 2011.

Meanwhile, Sainsbury was among the fallers after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock.

KESA DROPS 10% ON COMET WORRIES

Electrical retailer KESA took a tumble on the FTSE 250 after revealing that its Comet division, which it is in the process of offloading, saw revenues in the third quarter fall 15% as poor trading in the peak Boxing Day-to-New Year period offset a improving trend pre-Christmas. The firm said that the disposal is due to complete on February 3rd but net debt will likely exceed the agreed net debt threshold by up to £10-15m. Meanwhile, its French division, Darty, saw sales fall 2.2% but KESA said that this was still an outperformance in a weaker-than-expected market.

High street betting shop chain WIlliam Hill was a high riser after saying it expects full-year net revenue to be 6% higher in the 52 weeks ended December 27th, helped by online sales which jumped 28% year-on-year.

FTSE 100 - Risers
Carnival (CCL) 2,002.00p +1.57%
WPP (WPP) 757.00p +1.47%
Intertek Group (ITRK) 2,139.00p +1.42%
G4S (GFS) 272.80p +1.41%
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) 25.16p +1.29%
Weir Group (WEIR) 2,050.00p +1.23%
Admiral Group (ADM) 874.50p +1.16%
Barclays (BARC) 203.40p +1.14%
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 29.90p +1.05%
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 520.80p +1.01%

FTSE 100 - Fallers
ARM Holdings (ARM) 576.50p -1.45%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,614.00p -1.28%
Essar Energy (ESSR) 134.80p -1.03%
AstraZeneca (AZN) 3,081.00p -0.98%
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) 283.70p -0.94%
Fresnillo (FRES) 1,751.00p -0.79%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 2,124.00p -0.63%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 3,689.00p -0.58%
British American Tobacco (BATS) 2,947.00p -0.52%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 686.00p -0.51%

FTSE 250 - Risers
Talvivaara Mining Company (TALV) 353.80p +4.37%
JD Sports Fashion (JD.) 738.00p +4.09%
William Hill (WMH) 218.10p +4.01%
Henderson Group (HGG) 110.80p +2.88%
TUI Travel (TT.) 185.00p +2.15%
Capital & Counties Properties (CAPC) 186.00p +2.09%
Computacenter (CCC) 382.60p +2.00%
Dairy Crest Group (DCG) 326.80p +1.93%
Filtrona PLC (FLTR) 405.30p +1.91%
Regus (RGU) 88.65p +1.90%

FTSE 250 - Fallers
Kesa Electricals (KESA) 70.05p -10.08%
Redrow (RDW) 112.30p -5.95%
Dixons Retail (DXNS) 11.51p -2.95%
Petropavlovsk (POG) 669.50p -2.83%
Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 553.50p -1.95%
SDL (SDL) 693.00p -1.56%
Misys (MSY) 275.00p -1.47%
Exillon Energy (EXI) 259.20p -1.26%
New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 466.10p -1.19%
City of London Inv Trust (CTY) 286.20p -1.14%

Related share prices
Anglo American (AAL) share price
AstraZeneca (AZN) share price
Barclays (BARC) share price
BHP Billiton (BLT) share price
HSBC Holdings (HSBA) share price
Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) share price
Pearson (PSON) share price
Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) share price
Rio Tinto (RIO) share price
SABMiller (SAB) share price
Sainsbury (J) (SBRY) share price
William Hill (WMH) share price
Carnival (CCL) share price
Kesa Electricals (KESA) share price