Europe closes lower, Spanish, Greek stocks tumble

Europe closes lower, Spanish, Greek stocks tumble

European equities closed lower on Monday amid low volumes, with a number of markets shut for the holiday weekend.

The London Stock Exchange and its German counterpart were both closed for the Whit Monday holiday, while markets in the U.S. were closed for Memorial Day.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 (FTSE International: .FTEU3) closed around 0.1 percent lower, with the French CAC (Euronext Paris: .FCHI) index ending around 0.5 percent lower.


The benchmark Spanish IBEX index (Mercado Continuo: .IBEX) ended more than 2 percent lower after the ruling People's Party (PP) took a battering in regional and local elections on Sunday , as voters punished Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy for four years of severe spending cuts and a string of corruption scandals. This was viewed as worrying indicator ahead of national elections expected in November.

Italian stocks followed the Spanish IBEX lower, with the FTSE MIB (FTSE International: .FTMIB) ending down around 1.7 percent.

The Athens Composite index closed more than 3 percent lower, as fears of a potential Greek exit from the euro zone remained in the backdrop after the country's interior minister, Nikos Voutsis, threatened to default on loan repayments due to the International Monetary Fund on Sunday.

Asian stocks shrugged off a dismal lead from Wall Street to trade higher on Monday, with markets in Tokyo and Shanghai scoring fresh multi-year highs.

China's benchmark Shanghai Composite (Shanghai Stock Exchange: .SSEC) surged to its highest level since January 2008 and a weaker yen (Exchange: JPY=) and better-than-expected export data delivered a cheer to Japan's Nikkei 225 (Nihon Kenzai Shinbun: .N225), which hit its highest level since 2000.

Read More Japan's April exports climb 8% on-year

Meanwhile, bourses in Hong Kong and South Korea were closed for public holidays.

Talks between Greece and European finance ministers will kick off again on Wednesday. Greek Prime Minister Tsipras and Jeroen Dijsselbloem, president of the Eurogroup, will both speak at the European Parliament on Thursday.

GDP figures are due on Friday from the U.S. and will almost certainly show the world's biggest economy contracted last quarter.

In Europe, data due this week includes German and French consumer confidence readings.



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