Today, on Friday, the European stock markets in general decreased as renewed concerns over a possible Greek default have undermined investor sentiment after the International Monetary Fund has decided to withdraw from the negotiations.
During European morning trade, the STOXX EURO 50 fell 0.74%, France's CAC 40 lost 0.71%, while the German DAX 30 fell 0.94%.
European shares fell when the IMF refused to participate in talks on Greek debt, accusing Athens of failing to compromise on the labor market and pension reform.
The IMF said that its delegates leave Brussels because of the stalled negotiations and return to Washington.
The financial sector generally declined. Thus, French lenders BNP Paribas (PARIS: BNPP) and Societe Generale (PARIS: SOGN) weakened by 0.57% and 0.44% respectively, while the German Commerzbank (XETRA: CBKG) and Deutsche Bank (XETRA: DBKGn) fell 0.26% and 0.30%.
Among the peripheral lenders, Italian Intesa Sanpaolo (MILAN: ISP) and Unicredit (MILAN: CRDI) lost 0.26% and 0.30% respectively, while the Spanish Banco Santander (MADRID: SAN) retreated 0.52%.
Shares of Alstom (PARIS: ALSO) SA surged 1.21% after UBS Group AG announced that the planned takeover of General Electric (NYSE: GE) Co., is likely to receive approval from the European Commission if the US group would agree to certain conditions.
The London FTSE 100 index fell 0.48%, being under pressure of losses in the mining sector.
Stocks of Glencore Xstrata (LONDON: GLEN) weakened by 0.11%, shares of Rio Tinto (LONDON: RIO) lost 0.49%, while shares of Bhp Billiton (LONDON: BLT) and Fresnillo (LONDON: FRES) fell 1.04% and 1.09% respectively.
Financial sector shares weakened considerably. For example, shares of Lloyds Banking (LONDON: LLOY) lost 0.07%, shares of Barclays (LONDON: BARC) fell by 0.20%, the shares of Royal Bank of Scotland (LONDON: RBS) fell 0.41%, while shares of HSBC Holdings (LONDON: HSBA) fell 0.57%.
Meanwhile, shares in Royal Mail (LONDON: RMG) led the growth of the index, rising 1.46% after a sharp fall of more than 3%, on Thursday, on news that a new UK government is selling half of its 30% stake in the company.
In the US, equity markets pointed to a lower open. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average show a 0.26% decline, futures on the S&P 500 indicate a 0.30% drop, while the Nasdaq 100 futures reported a decrease of 0.40%.