ROME: Europe’s main stock markets have risen, following on the coat tails of a Wall Street energised by a fall in US jobless benefits claims.
London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies rose 0.4 per cent to end the Thursday at 6,707.88 points, while the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.3 per cent to 4,803.48 points and Frankfurt’s DAX 30 climbed 1.1 per cent to 11,100.30 points.
In foreign exchange trade, the euro hit a one month peak at $US1.1420 with the US dollar after the Federal Reserve said any rises in US interest rates would be slow, before easing to $US1.1407.
“US equity markets opened higher and spread optimism across European stocks which reversed earlier losses and climbed higher during the afternoon’s session,” Myrto Sokou, senior research analyst at Sucden Financial, said.
European markets had earlier traded lower as eurozone finance ministers were gathering to discuss Greece after a barrage of warnings that the country risks a damaging exit from the euro if it fails to strike a deal with creditors to free up €7.2 billion ($A10.5bn) in blocked bailout funds.
Cash-strapped Athens badly needs the aid to honour loan repayments to the International Monetary Fund by June 30.
“Hopes of Greece reaching a deal to unlock the tranche of funds during today’s Eurogroup meeting are very slim,” IHS Global Insight economist Diego Iscaro said.
“The lack of progress in the negotiations significantly increases the probability of Greece not making the €1.5bn IMF payment due at the end of June.”
Mr Iscaro added that “even if a technical default is not triggered yet, not paying the IMF would inevitably send shockwaves, not only in Greece, but also across the eurozone”.
