Europe's leading stock markets were stuck on hold Thursday, with traders remaining cautious as talks meant to deliver a breakthrough in the Greek debt crisis yielded only another delay. The CAC 40 in Paris slipped 0.07 percent to end the day at 5,041.71 points and Frankfurt's DAX 30 edged up 0.02 percent to 11,473.13 points.
Madrid slid 0.12 percent, while Rome managed a gain of 0.85 percent, and Athens' main index ended up 0.10 percent. Outside the eurozone, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies shed 0.54 percent at 6,807.82 points.
Earlier optimism that some sort of deal would be worked out to unlock bailout funds Athens needs to avoid defaulting on an IMF loan payment of around 1.5 billion euros on Tuesday had led to modest gains on European markets. But then an expected breakthrough failed to materialise and senior officials expressed scepticism. "This all played havoc with the markets, and having spiked around lunchtime the eurozone indices began to lose some of their lustre as they gave up the majority of their Thursday gains," said Connor Campbell at trading company Spreadex.
With time running short, hopes had been that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the EU and IMF creditors would be able to agree at talks early Thursday on what tax and spending measures Athens needs to undertake to unlock a final 7.2 billion euros in bailout funds. That failed to happen, and in the end proposals of both Greece and the European Union and the International Monetary Fund were submitted to a meeting of eurozone finance ministers.
It was originally hoped the ministers would be able to approve a deal, which could then be rubber-stamped by national leaders gathering for a EU summit on Thursday and Friday. But the Eurogroup meeting of finance ministers ended without a deal, with another meeting probably being held on Saturday. Germany's influential finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, had poured cold water on hopes for deal on Thursday. "The Greeks have rather made steps backward. Positions are even further apart rather than narrowing," he said ahead of the Eurogroup meeting.
Greece needs a quick deal as it does not have the 1.5 billion euros needed due to the IMF on June 30. A payment default could set off a chain of events resulting in Greece exiting the euro and even the EU. As talks drag on, the ECB earlier this week had increased its emergency liquidity funds for Greece's troubled banks. In foreign exchange trading on Thursday, the euro slid to $1.1197 from $1.1208 late in New York on Wednesday.
"In the absence of a deal, the pressure on both the Greek banking system and the euro is likely to build," said Phil McHugh, a trading floor manager at Currencies Direct. The dollar has recently attracted funds also as the US Federal Reserve is expected to raise key interest rates as early as in September. Swedish appliance giant Electrolux saw its stock fall 1.83 percent in Stockholm deals on Thursday after a report, which it denied, that its American chairman Keith McLoughlin was resigning to reunite with his family in the United States. McLoughlin has led Electrolux since 2011 and oversaw its decision last year to acquire US company GE Appliances for $3.3 billion.
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