Europe’s main stock markets rose and the euro was steady against the dollar yesterday even though eurozone finance chiefs failed to strike a deal to unlock the latest batch of bailout cash for heavily-indebted Greece.
The benchmark FTSE 100 index closed with a slight gain of 0.07 per cent at 5,752.03 points in London, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 rose by 0.16 per cent to 7,184.71 points and the Paris CAC 40 added 0.44 per cent to 3,477.36.
The European single currency was virtually unchanged at $1.2818.
On the London Bullion Market, gold prices fell to $1,724 an ounce from $1,732.25 late on Tuesday.
“It would surely have been hoping for too much to expect some form of agreement from last night’s Eurogroup meeting and so it has proved as the obstacles to an agreement continue to prove politically difficult,” said Michael Hewson, senior analyst at CMC Markets trading group.
“And once again markets wait as political theatre takes precedence over economic reality as we still await a decision on the next steps in this long drawn out saga surrounding Greece.”
The Eurogroup ministers said in a statement that no deal had been reached and that they would meet Monday “for further technical work on some elements of the package.”
Traders had been buying the euro on expectations an agreement would be made.
But the meeting ended with a statement that pointed only to “progress in identifying a consistent package of credible initiatives aimed at making a further substantial contribution to the sustainability of Greek ... debt.”
A Commerzbank analyst said: “Last night we were reminded of something that had almost been forgotten following all the ‘unlimited’ OMT (Outright Monetary Transactions by the European Central Bank) euphoria: with all the political activity surrounding the crisis management in Europe there is always an accident risk.”
The major sticking point has been whether to give Greece, which is in desperate need of the €31.2 billion handout, an extra two years to arrive at a point where it can raise its own funds.
In New York, some US stocks gained as Wall Street awaited a batch of economic data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.22 per cent in midday trades, while both the broad-market S&P 500 index and the Nasdaq Composite were essentially unchanged.
On the corporate front Wednesday, shares in Compass, the world’s biggest caterer by sales, fell 1.34 per cent to 699.5 pence after the British company said yesterday that its annual net profits dropped 17 per cent owing to the cost of restructuring operations, particularly in troubled eurozone nations.
Profit after tax slid to £605 million (€754 million) in the 12 months to September 30 compared with net earnings of £728 million in 2010/11, Compass said in an earnings statement.
Markets were looking ahead to an extraordinary EU summit today that was called to finalise a long-term trillion-euro budget.
Already weakened by three years of economic crisis, the 27-nation bloc of half a billion people faces new trauma at the two-day summit after weeks of talks that have exposed stark divisions between pro- and anti-austerity nations.