ROME: European stocks slipped after posting their best start to a year since 1989.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index dropped 0.2 percent to 366.25 at 9:51 a.m. in London after earlier rising as much as 0.3 percent. The gauge jumped 7.2 percent in January, ending last week 1.4 percent away from a seven-year high, as the European Central Bank announced an asset-purchase program. Greece’s ASE Index rallied the most among 18 western-European markets on Monday after slumping for a second month, while Spain’s IBEX 35 Index fell the most.
“I still worry about the lack of reforms in Europe and the fact that investment is not really happening,” said Andrea Williams, who helps oversee about $123 billion at Royal London Asset Management in London. “Greece will be a continuing problem, which will concern markets until they come to some agreement. The more concerning issue would be if the anti-austerity parties gained votes in the bigger economies like Spain and Italy.”
Investors are watching developments in Greece after its benchmark stock index plunged 13 percent last month, with lenders reaching a record low as a new government was elected. The ASE climbed 4.5 percent today, with a gauge of banks rallying 9.9 percent.
Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said the nation needs the European Central Bank’s help to keep its banks afloat, adding that Greece won’t take any more aid under its existing bailout agreement and wants a new deal with its official creditors by the end of May. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is unlikely to agree to a bilateral meeting with Premier Alexis Tsipras at a European Union summit next week, a government official said.
