European Markets Finished Mostly Higher Despite Greek Drama

(RTTNews) - The majority of the European markets ended Thursday's session in positive territory, despite some rather tumultuous developments regarding the situation in Greece. Greece requested a six month extension to repay its debt, but its proposal was rejected by Germany. Greece has sought an extension of the much talked EUR 240 billion bailout programme for six months, Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said Thursday. The European Central Bank reportedly approved to raise the support under the Emergency Liquidity Assistance for Greek banks on Wednesday. The limit was increased by EUR 3.3 billion to EUR 68.3 billion.

Germany has nixed a proposal to extend Greece's bailout terms for just six months, according to published reports. Germany rejected Greece's application to extend the loan agreement with less harsh terms, saying Athens is scheming to get another lifeline without fulfilling all of the terms of its rescue package.

"In truth it goes in the direction of a bridge financing, without fulfilling the demands of the program. The letter does not meet the criteria agreed by the Eurogroup on Monday," German finance ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger said in a statement.

The European Central Bank released the minutes of its monetary policy meetings for the first time on Thursday. The minutes revealed how the deliberations went that led to the approval of the EUR 1.1 trillion quantitative easing in the January session.

"A large majority of voting members" supported the decision to announce the EUR 1.1 trillion scheme that included buying government bonds, the bank said in the minutes of the January 22 rate-setting session.

Further, members also broadly agreed that purchases of sovereign debt appeared to be the only instrument of sufficient scope to provide the necessary monetary stimulus to deliver on the ECB's price stability objective.

"Members broadly shared the assessment that inflation dynamics had continued to be weaker than expected, economic slack had remained sizable and money and credit developments had continued to be subdued, notwithstanding recent more positive monetary developments," the minutes said.

"The Governing Council was thus faced with heightened risks of too prolonged a period of too low inflation."

The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks increased by 0.56 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, added 0.05 percent.

The DAX of Germany climbed by 0.37 percent and the CAC 40 of France rose by 0.71 percent. The FTSE of the U.K. fell by 0.13 percent, but the SMI of Switzerland finished higher by 1.13 percent.

In Frankfurt, Adidas surged by 5.34 percent, as the sportswear giant has reportedly begun to search for a new chief executive.

Volkswagen increased by 2.53 percent. BMW rose by 0.60 percent and Daimler gained 0.67 percent.

RWE fell by 1.41 percent and E.ON lost 1.08 percent.

In Paris, Cap Gemini gained 4.86 percent, after reporting increased quarterly revenues

Essilor International advanced by 4.33 percent. The eyewear maker reported an increased annual profit.

Air France KLM dropped by 5.02 percent. The company announced that it plans to reduce its investment plans by €600 million over the next two years.

Total decreased by 2.72 percent, after oil prices dropped back below $50 a barrel. Technip also fell by 1.16 percent.

In London, Centrica plunged by 8.54 percent. The utility reported a pre-tax loss for the year, adding that adjusted earnings for 2015 are expected to be down from the prior year.

Rexam climbed by 6.05 percent, after Ball Corp. (BLL) offered to acquire the beverages-can maker in an $8.4 billion deal.

Sports Direct International, which issued a trading update, finished higher by 0.73 percent.

Tullow Oil dropped by percent, due to declining oil prices. BG Group fell by 2.58 percent, BP lost 1.24 percent and Royal Dutch Shell finished lower by 2.07 percent.

Volvo finished higher by 0.92 percent in Stockholm. The company reported a slide in deliveries of trucks in January.

Nestle, which reported full-year results, gained 1.27 percent in Zurich.

The euro area current account surplus declined to a four-month low in December, the European Central Bank reported Thursday. The current account surplus dropped to EUR 17.8 billion in December from EUR 19.9 billion in November. This level was last seen in August.

French consumer prices declined for the first time since October 2009, the statistical office Insee said Thursday. Consumer prices fell more-than-expected 0.4 percent in January from last year, reversing a 0.1 percent rise in December. Prices were expected to drop 0.3 percent.

This was the first decrease since October 2009 and matched the 0.4 percent drop seen in September 2009.

U.K. gross mortgage lending declined in January largely reflecting fewer approvals through the second half of last year, the Council of Mortgage Lenders reported Thursday. Gross mortgage lending declined 14 percent on a monthly basis to GBP 14.3 billion in January. From the same period of last year, it declined by 11 percent.

British manufacturers expect output to grow faster in the coming three months after reporting a pickup in pace in February, according to the Industrial Trends survey from the Confederation of British Industry.

About 26 percent of firms reported an above normal total order books and 16 percent said they were below normal, giving a balance of +10 percent. This was well above the long run average of -16 percent and +6 percent forecast by economists.

After reporting increases in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the two previous weeks, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing that initial jobless claims pulled back by more than expected in the week ended February 14th.

The report said initial jobless claims fell to 283,000, a decrease of 21,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 304,000. Economists had been expecting initial jobless claims to show a somewhat more modest decrease to a level of 290,000.

While the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia released a report on Thursday showing continued growth in regional manufacturing activity in the month of February, the pace of growth unexpectedly slowed for the third consecutive month.

The report said the diffusion index for current general activity fell to 5.2 in February from 6.3 in January, although a positive reading indicates a continued increase in regional manufacturing activity. The modest decrease came as a surprise to economists, who had expected the Philly Fed index to climb to a reading of 9.0.

Suggesting a positive short-term outlook, the Conference Board released a report on Thursday showing a modest increase by its index of leading U.S. economic indicators in the month of January. The Conference Board said the leading economic index edged up by 0.2 percent in January following a downwardly revised 0.4 percent increase in December.

Economists had expected the index to rise by 0.3 percent compared to the 0.5 percent advance originally reported for the previous month.