* FTSE down 0.8 percent, reverses early gains
* Commods, banks fall; Greece deficit widens
* Unilever rises; broker comment, Nestle results
By David Brett
LONDON, April 22 (Reuters) - Britain's top shares swung into
negative territory in midsession trade on Thursday dented by
reports of Greece's widening deficit, which sent commodity
prices and miners sliding and weakened banks.
At 1048 GMT, the FTSE 100 <> fell 45.16 points, or 0.8
percent, at 5,678.27, after falling 1 percent on Wednesday.
The UK index echoed falls across Europe after statistics
office Eurostat said Greece's budget deficit jumped to 13.6
percent of GDP in 2009, almost a full percentage point higher
than a government projection of 12.7 percent. []
"Credit default swaps on Greece have widened out to over 500
indicating that all's not well over there and that they're going
to have to tap into the EU IMF funds very very soon," said Manoj
Ladwa, senior trader at ETX Capital.
For more on the Greek debt crisis click on [].
The news sent commodity prices into reverse with investors
worrying over the potential impact on demand for raw materials.
Miners, favoured for much of the morning, were lower with
Fresnillo <FRES.L>, Rio Tinto <RIO.L>, BHP Billiton <BLT.L>,
Lonmin <LMI.L> and Xstrata <XTA.L> off 1.1 to 2 percent.
But Vedanta Resources <VED.L> gained 0.6 percent, helped by
Citigroup upping its rating to "buy" from "hold".
Crude <CLc1> also fell as news of the Greece situation added
to the weight of strong U.S. government oil inventory data
overnight.
Royal Dutch Shell <RDSa.L>, BP <BP.L> and BG Group <BG.L>
fell 0.6 to 1.7 percent.
Risk sensitive banks, volatile since fraud charges against
U.S. giant Goldman Sachs <GS.N> heightened the potential for
austere regulation within the industry, also shed early gains as
markets fretted over their potential exposure.
HSBC <HSBA.L>, Lloyds Banking Group <LLOY.L>, Barclays
<BARC.L> and Standard Chartered <STAN.L> were 0.5 to 1.5 percent
lower.
Liberty International <LII.L> was among the biggest blue
chip fallers, off 1.8 percent as Morgan Stanley downgraded the
mall owner to "underweight" from "equal-weight" ahead of a
proposed demerger.
FOOD PRODUCERS SUPPORTS
Food producers were the best performing sector in the FTSE
100, with sentiment boosted by upbeat broker comment and after
Nestle <NESN.VX>, the world's biggest food group, beat forecasts
with first-quarter sales.
Unilever <ULVR.L> rose 1.4 percent, with Panmure Gordon
lifting its rating on the consumer goods group to "buy" from
"hold".
Elsewhere, Intertek <ITRK.L> grabbed the top spot on the
FTSE 100 leaderboard, up 2.4 percent at a lifetime high after JP
Morgan upgraded the testing company to "overweight" from
"neutral", saying the stock offers the best growth potential in
the sector.
There was brighter news for Britain's public finance
figures, which came in slightly better than economists had
expected in March, but still confirmed the 2009/10 fiscal year
as the worst since records began after World War Two.
[]
The figures were announced before the second TV debate
between the three main UK political party leaders later on
Thursday, ahead of the general election on May 6.
(Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)
