London---Europe's main stock markets fell on Thursday ahead of crunch Eurogroup talks on Greece, as hopes faded of a deal between Athens and its creditors over bailout repayments, dealers said.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies dropped 0.25 percent to 6,663.67 points in mid-afternoon deals.
The CAC 40 in Paris lost 0.45 percent to 4,769.37 points and Frankfurt's DAX 30 slipped 0.67 percent to 10,903.97 compared with Wednesday's closing levels.
The Greek ATHEX index, however, rebounded from an early 2.48 percent drop to trade 0.43 percent higher at 683.78 points.
In foreign exchange trade, the euro hit a one month peak at $1.1420 with the dollar after the Federal Reserve said any rises in US interest rates would be slow, before easing slightly to $1.1411.
Eurozone finance ministers were set to hold a meeting on Greece in Luxembourg after a barrage of warnings that the country risks a damaging exit from the euro if it fails to strike a deal with creditors to free up 7.2 billion euros ($8.1 billion) in blocked bailout funds.
Cash-strapped Athens badly needs the aid to honour loan repayments to the International Monetary Fund by the end of June.
- Lack of progress -
"Hopes of Greece reaching a deal to unlock the tranche of funds during today's Eurogroup meeting are very slim," said IHS Global Insight economist Diego Iscaro.
"The lack of progress in the negotiations significantly increases the probability of Greece not making the 1.5-billion-euro IMF payment due at the end of June."
Iscaro added that "even if a technical default is not triggered yet, not paying the IMF would inevitably send shockwaves, not only in Greece, but also across the eurozone."
As negotiations between Athens, the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank over the last tranche of Greece's massive international bailout grew increasingly acrimonious this week, officials have started openly discussing the prospect of Greece crashing out of the euro.
On Wednesday, a day ahead of the meeting of the eurozone's 19 countries, Greece's central bank warned for the first time that the country could suffer a "painful" exit from the single currency area -- and even the European Union -- if it fails to reach a deal.
AFP
