Traders work in front of the DAX board at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The DAX 30 tumbled 2.26% to 11,413.82 points yesterday.
AFP/London
Europe’s equity markets slumped yesterday on the final day of a Group of Seven finance meeting, dominated by festering concerns over Greece and pressure from the US and Japan to resolve the debt crisis.
Investors are increasingly worried that Greece and its creditors could fail to reach an agreement on reforms tied to its bailout and Athens could struggle to meet looming debt repayments next week.
In the eurozone, the CAC 40 in Paris plunged 2.53% to end the day at 5,007.89 points, and Frankfurt’s DAX 30 tumbled 2.26% to 11,413.82 points.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies dropped 0.80% compared with Thursday’s close to close at 6,984.43 points.
“European equity markets remained under pressure during the last trading session of the month, as persistent concerns regarding Greece’s economic stability and future weighed on market sentiment” said Myrto Sokou, senior research analyst at Sucden Financial Research.
The European single currency, meanwhile, firmed to $1.0971 from $1.0947 late in New York on Thursday.
While Greece was not officially on the agenda of the Dresden meeting — which was preparing for a wider summit of G7 leaders starting on June 7 — Athens’ troubles dominated the talks.
“All parties need to move” in the Greek negotiations, US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told reporters after the meeting wrapped up Friday.
“Everyone agrees that resolving this without crisis would be in the interest of everyone and the global economy,” he said.
Athens’ coffers are near empty and the Greek government under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said it has “no money” to make a series of repayments to the International Monetary Fund totalling €1.6bn ($1.75bn) that are due beginning June 5.
While Greek officials have in past days expressed hope of a deal by tomorrow given the looming payment deadline, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis yesterday appeared to lower expectations by indicating that talks could go to the end of June, although he said a deal was close.
US stocks edged lower yesterday after a revision of official data showed the US economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.7% in the first quarter of the year.
The figures came in roughly as expected, showing a heavy drag from trade due to the West Coast ports slowdown, but consumer spending also was lower than originally thought.
Around mid-day in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.56% to 18,025.29 points.
The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.66% to 2,106.72 points, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 0.63% to 5,066.07.
