European stock markets fell on Monday awaiting pivotal debt talks on Greece, while investors reacted to a suspension of US trading as Hurricane Sandy bore down on New York.
London’s FTSE 100 index of top companies dropped by 0.62 percent in value to stand at 5,770.56 points in late morning deals.
Frankfurt’s DAX 30 slipped 0.71 percent to 7,205.05 points and in Paris the CAC 40 shed 1.0 percent to 3,398.77.
Madrid’s IBEX 35 slid 0.80 percent to 7,713.60 points.
“Equity markets have started the week on the back foot, with some traders no doubt taken aback by the late decision to suspend electronic trading across a number of US exchanges in preparation for hurricane Sandy’s arrival,” said Mike McCudden, head of derivatives at data provider Interactive Investor.
In foreign exchange trading, the euro retreated to $1.2905 from $1.2935 late in New York on Friday.
Gold prices dipped to $1,712.13 an ounce on the London Bullion Market, from $1,716 an ounce on Friday.
Italy raised 8.0 billion euros ($10.32 billion) in six-month bonds at a lower rate in spite of political unease after threats by ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi to pull support for the government.
Rates for the six-month paper dropped from 1.503 percent at the last similar operation in September, to 1.347 percent.
The auction followed a sale of medium and long-term bonds on Friday, at which the Italian treasury borrowed 4.0 billion euros at lower rates.
European stock markets had closed higher Friday on figures that showed a pick up in the US growth rate, after having taken a hit on Spanish unemployment reaching 25 percent for the first time.
All eyes were back on Greece this week, as eurozone ministers and officials were to hold a series of potentially critical meetings to decide whether Athens had done enough to get its next instalment of aid and so avoid bankruptcy next month.
Ministers were also looking at a Greek request for the terms of its bailout to be extended by two years to 2016, allowing it to spread out the pain of the tough austerity measures it has agreed to in return for help.
International auditors would demand that Greece carried out a further 150 reforms to its recession-battered economy and suggest holders of Greek debt take a further hit, German newsweekly Spiegel reported on Sunday.
On the corporate front, shares in British publisher Pearson dropped 0.74 percent to 1,212 pence after the group agreed to merge its Penguin books unit with English-language rival Random House, owned by German media giant Bertelsmann.
Penguin and Random House would combine their businesses in a newly-created joint venture named Penguin Random House, said a statement. Bertelsmann would own 53 percent of the joint venture and Pearson 47 percent.
Shares in International Airlines Group, which owns British Airways and Iberia, slid 1.32 percent to 158 pence as BA was forced to cancel about 20 flights because of Sandy.
In Paris, shares in auto group PSA Peugeot Citroen fell briefly below 5.0 euros and were at the lowest level since 1985 in response to the group’s financial problems and weakness in the world auto market.
In the United States, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq will be closed completely Monday and possibly even Tuesday due to the imminent arrival of Hurricane Sandy, its operator said.
Asian stock markets ended mostly lower on Monday the better-than-expected US growth data failed to offset concerns over corporate earnings.
Trading was also nervous on the eve of a Bank of Japan policy meeting and ahead of the release of US jobs data later in the week.
The US Department of Commerce on Friday said the world’s number one economy grew at a 2.0 percent annual rate in July-September — compared to the second quarter’s 1.3 percent expansion and the 1.9 percent forecast by most economists.
Source: AFP
