Greek drama weighs on European stocks again

The lack of a forthcoming deal between Greece and its European creditors continued to pressure European stock markets on Thursday June 25th. Progress in negotiations faltered on Wednesday when officials in Europe accused Greece of backtracking on compromises that had previously been offered. Concern over this bled over into Thursday and dragged Greek stocks lower, while other indices saw modest gains after opening lower.

By midday, Germany’s DAX was up nearly 0.3 per cent, the French CAC 40 added more than 0.1 per cent and the Euro Stoxx 50 was around 0.1 per cent in positive territory. However, Greece’s stock markets suffered on the news, tumbling more than two per cent in early trading. However, it bounced back into the green by lunchtime.

Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras met with the heads of the creditors of Greece on Thursday, but they failed to reach an accord. Sunday has now been stated as the final deadline for Greece to reach an agreement with its creditors by Austrian finance minister Hans Jörg Schelling.

Meanwhile, it seems that a proposal has been sent to the Eurogroup (the meeting of European finance ministers) by the creditors of Greece that they say could form the basis for an agreement. However, it stressed there is no “take it or leave it” attitude being adopted, and that negotiations can continue until the final deadline.

While the ongoing Greek debt saga continues to remain a focal point in Europe, there’s no doubt that Greece’s time is running out.

Elsewhere, the price of a barrel of crude oil steadied on Thursday, after declines of nearly a dollar were seen on Wednesday following disappointing data. 

Figures showed an unforeseen increase in US gasoline inventories, despite gasoline demand rising to its highest level for the period since 1991 in the previous week. Meanwhile, US Crude stocks declined for its eighth week in a row.

Brent crude settled near $63.50 per barrel and WTI trades just above the $60 per barrel handle.