(MENAFN- AFP) Europe's stock markets lost ground on Monday as Greece failed to make progress in talks with its eurozone partners and concerns mounted about the potential for a default.
Nevertheless shortly before markets closed news that Greece had transferred a payment of 750 million euros ($836 million) due to the IMF by Tuesday helped reassure investors.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index slid 0.24 percent to end the day at 7,029,85 points.
The CAC 40 in Paris fell 1.23 percent to 5,027.87 points, while the DAX 30 in Frankfurt shed 0.31 percent to 11,673.35 points.
The euro dropped to $1.1141 from $1.1208 late in New York on Friday.
"Multiple eurozone officials offering no hope of a resolution for Greece at the next meeting of finance ministers hit sentiment in European stocks on Monday," said analyst Jasper Lawler at CMC Markets UK.
Greece pushed Europe on Monday to back its reform plans, but the eurozone's finance ministers who met in Brussels warned there would be no deal yet to release 7.2 billion euros in remaining bailout funds.
While Athens made the payment to the IMF, some fear the Mediterranean nation cannot afford payments due in the coming months, including around another 2 billion euros to the IMF and nearly 7 billion euros to the European Central Bank.
Greek stocks ended the day down 2.51 percent.
Meanwhile in London, the Bank of England Monday as expected kept its main interest rate at 0.50 percent as Britain battles the risk of deflation.
- Crash hurts Airbus shares -
On the corporate front, shares in Airbus tumbled more than 4 percent in early trading after a Saturday crash of one of its A400M military transport planes during a test flight in Spain that killed four employees.
However the shares cut the loss, ending the day down 2.07 percent at 62.09 euros, after the European aerospace giant said it will continue test flights.
Swiss farm chemicals giant Syngenta's shares made further gains Monday as market analysts weighed the chances of a higher bid from US rival Monsanto after its offer was rejected last week as being too low.
Shares shot up by nearly 5 percent in morning trade in Zurich, after having bolted 19.3 percent on Friday after the Basel-based firm turned down the offer. Its shares closed the day with a gain of 1.54 percent at 403 Swiss francs.
Syngenta said Monsanto had made an offer of 449 Swiss francs ($486) per share with approximately 45 percent in cash, but claimed it was undervalued.
Asian stock markets mostly rose Monday on the Friday US jobs report, while investor sentiment was also boosted by China's decision to cut interest rates for the third time in six months, analysts said.
China's central bank on Sunday cut rates by 25 basis points -- after two similar moves since November -- as it tries to support the world's number two economy, which grew last year at its slowest pace since 1990.
"Another rate cut over the weekend in China was a boost to domestic markets but the affect was more muted in Europe which pulled back after finishing last week strongly," said Lawler.
US stocks were treading water Monday as investors watched for developments concerning Greece.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.15 percent to stand at 18,162.95 points in midday trading in New York.
The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.10 percent to 2,113.88, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index edged up 0.07 percent to 5,006.93.
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