On Monday, the European stock indices went mostly down, as the investors focused their attention on the meeting of finance ministers of the Eurogroup and Greece later in the session.
During European morning trade, the STOXX EURO 50 fell 0.79%, France's CAC 40 lost 0.23%, while the German DAX 30 fell 0.39%.
Later on Monday, the representatives of Greece and the Eurozone planned to hold a new round of negotiations, while Athens has not lost hope of reaching an agreement on a package of economic reforms required to extend financial assistance.
On the eve of the talks, the Greek Government suggested that it still has hopes for progress in the negotiations, but officials of the eurozone indicated a large number of unfixed issues that exist at this stage. On Tuesday, Greece must pay off the debt to the IMF in the amount of approximately € 770 million.
The financial sector trends are mixed. Societe Generale (PARIS: SOGN) and BNP Paribas (PARIS: BNPP) fell by 0.20% and 0.87%, while Commerzbank (XETRA: CBKG) jumped 1.26%, and Deutsche Bank (XETRA: DBKGn) rose 0.02%.
Among the peripheral lenders, Italian Intesa Sanpaolo (MILAN: ISP) and Unicredit (MILAN: CRDI) lost 0.17% and 0.80% respectively, while Spanish BBVA (MADRID: BBVA) and Banco Santander (MADRID: SAN) fell 0.32% and 0.34% respectively.
The shares of Airbus Group (PARIS: AIR) fell 4.2% after the military transport plane A400M of the company crashed on Saturday in Spain, killing four people.
The shares of TomTom (AMS: TOM2) rose 0.84% after the Amsterdam-based company announced that its Chief Financial Officer resigned in July.
London's FTSE 100 rose 0.30%, continuing to be supported by the unexpected victory of the Conservative Party of Great Britain in the elections at the end of last week, while the markets are preparing for the upcoming political statement of the Bank of England.
The mining sector in general, notes a rise. For example, shares of Rio Tinto (LONDON: RIO) gained 1.03%, the stock Bhp Billiton (LONDON: BLT) jumped 1.31%, while shares of Anglo American (LONDON: AAL) and Glencore Xstrata (LONDON: GLEN) rose by 1.41% and 1.46% respectively.
The financial sector shows a mixed trend. For example, shares of Lloyds Banking (LONDON: LLOY) rose 0.29%, shares of Barclays (LONDON: BARC) jumped 0.71%, while shares of Royal Bank of Scotland (LONDON: RBS) lost 0.11%, and shares of HSBC Holdings (LONDON: HSBA) retreated 0.70%.
Meanwhile, shares of Intercontinental Hotels Group (LONDON: IHG) led the decline on the index, falling 0.69%, after the Friday increase, when the group reported that the level of income for the first quarter exceeded analysts' forecasts.