U.K. stocks pared their decline after the euro area’s finance ministers agreed to a second bailout for Greece. Croda International Plc (CRDA) rose 5.4 percent after posting 2011 earnings that beat analysts’ estimates. The FTSE 100 (UKX) Index added 1.81, or less than 0.1 percent, to 5,947.06 at 9:15 a.m. in London. The gauge has rallied 20 percent from last year’s lowest level on Oct. 4. The benchmark measure jumped 0.7 percent yesterday to its highest level since July 8 as China cut its banks’ reserve requirements.The FTSE All-Share Index also increased less than 0.1 percent today, while Ireland’s ISEQ Index decreased 0.1 percent. Euro-area policy makers awarded Greece a 130 billion-euro ($172 billion) rescue, coaxed private creditors to provide more debt relief through a bond-swap offer and tapped into European Central Bank profits to avert the single currency’s first default. The deal includes a 53.5 percent writedown for investors in Greek debt, according to Luxembourg’s Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, who chaired the meeting of ministers in Brussels yesterday. U.K. stocks earlier declined as much as 0.4 percent as investors considered an International Monetary Fund analysis that suggested Greece’s debt will still swell to 160 percent of gross domestic product in a worst-case scenario. To contact the reporter on this story: Namitha Jagadeesh in London at njagadeesh@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net

Source