Europe close: Stocks finish in positive territory as Greece meets IMF debt repayment

Stocks in the Eurozone ended Thursday’s session on a positive note as Greece met its deadline to repay debt to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and as data showed improvement in the country’s economy.

Athens said it met its obligation to pay the IMF €460m amid talks between the two and the EU.

Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis expressed his frustration with the lack of progress on reforms needed to please its creditors in order to unlock further aid.

“We are keen to begin implementing this yesterday, but everything is on hold until the negotiations are finished,” he reportedly said in a conversation with American novelist and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz.

He added: “Reform is a word that resonates in Greece like the word democracy does in Iraq. Reform is a dirty word in Greece.”

In good news for the struggling nation, the annual rate of deflation slowed to 2.1% in March from 2.2% in February. Greece has been in deflation for the past 25 months.

The Greek unemployment rate eased slightly to 25.7% in January from 25.9% in December. While the jobless rate has been declining from a record high of 28% in September, it remains double the Eurozone average of 11.3% in February.

In other economic data, Germany’s trade surplus jumped to €19.2bn in February from €15.9bn a month earlier, beating forecasts of €19bn, according to the Federal Statistic Office Destatis.

The surplus was supported by a 1.5% increase in exports while imports grew 1.8%, beating expectations for a 1% and 1.2% gain respectively.

A separate report showed German industrial production fell 0.3% in February, trailing estimates for a 0.6% rise.
The euro dropped 0.94% to $1.0680.

In the UK, the Bank of England decided to keep interest rates at the record low of 0.5% and its asset purchase programme at £375bn, as expected.

Stateside, initial jobless claims rose to 281,000 in the week to 4 April, compared to 267,000 the previous week and analysts estimates of 283,000.

The Federal Reserve is keeping a close watch on the labour market to determine the timing of the first interest rate hike since 2006. Minutes of the Fed’s last meeting overnight showed policymakers were divided over when to raise rates.

Oil edges higher

Oil benchmarks were trading higher following overnight losses as record March production data from Saudi Arabia and a rise in US inventories knocked the prices down by nearly 3% overnight.

At 17:05 BST on Thursday, the WTI front month futures contract was trading up 1.2% at $51.08 per barrel while Brent was trading up 2.3% at $57.87.

Among companies, Lafarge SA and Holcim Ltd. gained as the cement makers agreed to appoint Eric Olsen to lead their soon-to-be merged company.

Vivendi SA rallied after the French company agreed to pay an extra dividend of €2 per share to meet demands by Wall Street activist Peter Schoenfeld for more returns.