By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
European stocks pared gains Friday, following a lackluster end
to a meeting on Greece's debt troubles, but equities still finished
with a win for the week.
The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.3% to 408.42, stepping back from
stronger gains as consumer-services, technology and oil and gas and
health care shares turned lower.
AstraZeneca shares fell 1.7% after the drug maker posted a fall
in first-quarter profit and sales
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/astrazeneca-profit-falls-as-new-drug-costs-rise-2015-04-24).
But shares of HSBC PLC (HSBC) climbed 2.9% after the banking
heavyweight said it is considering moving its headquarters out of
the U.K
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hsbc-considers-quitting-the-uk-2015-04-24).
Read: Don't expect a flood of banks to stop calling London home
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hsbc-may-ditch-london-but-dont-expect-a-flood-of-lenders-to-leave-2015-04-24)
The pan-European benchmark ended the week higher by 1.1%, its
third weekly gain in four weeks. It is up 19% so far this year.
Greece: Greece's Athex Composite closed up 3.3% at 761.56, but
moved off session highs after a meeting of eurozone finance
ministers concluded without any agreement related to economic
reforms needed for Greece to receive more bailout funds.
Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the Eurogroup finance ministers,
said Greece is running out of cash. Economists at Credit Suisse on
Friday said Greece could keep operations moving until July without
running out of cash. Read: Greece can survive deadlock until July.
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/greece-can-survive-debt-deadlock-until-july-credit-suisse-says-2015-04-24)
Analysts ahead of Friday's Eurogroup meeting said it appeared
unlikely any major breakthrough would emerge, but reports late
Thursday following discussions between German Chancellor Angela
Merkel and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras raised the prospect
that more progress had been made.
Among stock moves, shares of Piraeus Bank SA jumped 15.5%,
Attica Bank SA rose 9.3% and National Bank of Greece rose 6.7%.
Greek bond prices fell, pushing the yield on 2-year debt up by
72 basis points to 25.5%, and the yield on 10-year bonds up 38
basis points to 12.5%. Prices and yields move inversely.
Germany: Germany's DAX 30 closed up 0.7% at 11,810.85. The
widely watched Ifo sentiment survey for April rose to 108.6
(http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ifo-german-business-mood-at-highest-since-june-2015-04-24)
from 107.9 in March, reaching its highest level since June 2014.
Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had expected the
indicator to rise to 108.4.
The findings from Ifo Insitute "could add to evidence that
eurozone's growth engine is gathering steam, despite the weak
preliminary manufacturing and service-sector PMIs on Thursday,"
said Marshall Gittler, head of global currency strategy, at IronFX
Global Ltd., in a note early Friday. The effects from lower oil
prices and a weaker euro are "likely to slowly feed through the
real economy going forward and could provide further support to
domestic sentiment."
The euro (EURUSD) late Friday traded at $1.0870, up from late
Thursday's level at around $1.0826.
On other major stock indexes, France's CAC 40 rose 0.4% to
5,201.45, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.2% to 7,070.70, led by
the climb in HSBC shares.
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