ROME: Europe’s benchmark stock index dropped for a fifth straight trading session on Monday, with uncertainty about Greece’s future in the eurozone continuing to weigh on sentiment.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index SXXP, -0.25% dropped 0.3% to 387.96, setting it on track for the lowest close since March.
The benchmark lost 2.7% last week — the biggest weekly percentage drop since early May — as Greece scrambled to reach a deal with its international creditors ahead of a payment to the International Monetary Fund that was due on Friday. However, Athens asked to defer the payment to the end of June, by bundling together four IMF payments into one.
While the move spooked markets on Friday, it also bought Greece more time to reach an agreement with lenders to unlock the next portion of bailout money, Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda, said in a note on Monday.
“That said, given how talks have gone so far, I struggle to see what good that will do as neither side is showing any appetite to budge on key issues of pension and labor-market reform, and VAT,” Erlam said.
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis and his German counterpart Wolfgang Schauble are due to meet in Berlin on Monday to try to break the negotiation deadlock.
