Monday, 13 July 2015 12:16
HONG KONG: The euro edged down Monday but stock markets mostly rose as European leaders presented Greece with a painful set of demands to secure a debt bailout or face a eurozone exit.
Traders also took some support from figures showing a pick-up in Chinese exports that tempered worries about the country’s economy and provided some stability to Shanghai stocks after weeks of fierce volatility.
During the high-stakes summit talks, Germany and other eurozone leaders handed Greece a brutal ultimatum for desperately needed bailout cash Sunday, with Chancellor Angela Merkel pushing for a temporary euro exit — or “time out” — if it does not agree.
However, there was still no agreement early Monday morning despite more than 10 hours of talks, with Greece’s economy and banking system at risk of imminent collapse.
Athens said the plans were “very bad”, but with its lenders on the brink it looked to have little choice but to bow to reform demands that effectively rob it of control of much its finances.
In Japanese trade the euro dipped but managed to stave off heavy losses as the talks continued in Brussels.
It eased to $ 1.1125 from $ 1.1149 in New York late Friday. In earlier electronic trading, the single currency fell as low as $ 1.1089. It was also at 136.40 yen compared with 136.58 yen in US trade.
“Market reaction in the euro is surprisingly muted,” said Steven Englander, global head of Group-of-10 currency strategy at Citigroup.
“The absence of agreement and toughness of terms are eye-catching, but investors are waiting for the outcome more than trying to anticipate it.”
On share markets Tokyo was up 1.21 percent, Seoul added 0.52 percent and Sydney gained 0.41 percent.
