Monday, 23 March 2015 19:24
LONDON: European stocks fell Monday ahead of more talks aimed at resolving Greece’s debt crisis, but London briefly hit another record peak before pulling lower.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index soared as high as 7,027.33 points in morning deals, extending its recent record run on a wave of investor optimism over the economic outlook. It later stood at 7,020.83 points, down 0.02 percent from Friday’s close.
Elsewhere, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 index slumped 1.30 percent to 11,882.28 points and the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.76 percent to 5,049.00.
The leaders of Greece and Germany meet Monday aiming to calm the bitter acrimony that has raged since a radical-left government took power in Athens vowing to halt an austerity drive championed by Berlin.
After a weeks-long war of words, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will welcome Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras with military honours at her imposing glass-and-steel chancellery in central Berlin.
Both sides say they will not negotiate on a settlement for Greece’s crushing debt as the country teeters on the brink of insolvency.
“The eurozone’s big news is a trip to Berlin for Alexis Tsipras as he meets Merkel to talk about the Greek debt crisis, and more importantly, try and rebuild the bruised and breaking relationship between the two nations,” said Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell.
“Tsipras has already stated that Greece’s debt will be ‘impossible’ to pay without help, so it remains to be seen how productive these talks will actually be.
“These two leaders will be meeting against the backdrop of more market instability, with the eurozone indices dipping into the red following last Friday’s rebound.”
In company news, Pirelli’s share price jumped 3.5 percent in early trading Monday after Chinese state firm ChemChina reached a deal that will give it a controlling stake in the Italian tyre maker.
ChemChina confirmed it had agreed to pay 15 euros ($ 16) per share for Camfin’s 26.2 percent stake in the tyremaker and plans to make a tender offer to other investors for their shares.
Pirelli shares were showing a gain of 0.83 percent to 15.57 euros in mid-afternoon trading on Milan’s FTSE Mib, which was down 0.43 percent overall.
In foreign exchange activity, the European single currency rose to $ 1.0928 from $ 1.0821 late on Friday in New York.
The dollar continued to struggle after the US Federal Reserve dampened expectations for an early interest rate hike last week, analysts said.
“Expectations of a June interest rate increase were a key driver of the bull market in the dollar over the last three months, but last week’s Fed meeting injected some uncertainty into the exact timing of rate increases,” noted CurrenciesDirect dealer Alistair Cotton.
Asian equity markets mostly advanced Monday after rallies on Wall Street and in Europe last week.
With few catalysts to drive business, investors in the region took their lead from their US counterparts who have been cheered by the Fed’s dovish comments on rates.
Tokyo stocks added 0.99 percent, Shanghai surged 1.95 percent and Hong Kong gained 0.49 percent, but Seoul fell 0.32 percent.
US stocks opened mixed on Monday.
Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.14 percent to 18,152.61 points.
The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.05 percent to 2,109.21, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slid 0.16 percent to 5,018.45.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2015
