Europe close: Stocks flatline as Greek crisis rumbles on

European stocks ended a choppy day on a mixed note on Thursday, as the Greek debt saga continued to hog headlines.

The benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 index ended down 0.20%, France’s CAC 40 closed off 0.07% but Germany’s DAX ended 0.02% higher.

In the periphery, Greece’s ASE Composite finished up 0.10%, Spain’s IBEX 35 was down 0.12% and Italy’s FTSE Mib outperformed , gaining 0.85% by the end of day.

In currency markets, the euro was little changed against the dollar a $1.1196.

Societe Generale analyst Kit Juckes said: “If some kind of patched-up deal can be agreed, the focus will switch to next week’s raft of key US economic data and EUR/USD’s next move will be a function of ISM and nonfarm payrolls.”

As the day of reckoning for Greece loomed ever closer, with its €1.6bn debt repayment to the International Monetary Fund due by the end of the month, investors were hit with a veritable deluge of news.

The end result, however, was a lack of progress – a state of affairs market participants have grown accustomed to of late.

The Eurozone meeting on Greece concluded with no agreement on Thursday, as both sides remained split over the tax and spending measures Athens would need to put in place to secure much-needed bailout aid.

“It seems that equity markets have become frozen in the headlights of this oncoming runaway train. It might appear farcical to someone unaccustomed to the ways in which Europe has behaved in the aftermath of the financial crisis – but it has been the creditors, not Greece, who appear most eager to drive things forward,” said Alastair McCaig, market analyst at IG.

“The speed with which the creditors brought a counter-proposal to the table highlights the fact no-one believed the Greeks were going to produce anything that would be acceptable,” he added.

The Eurogroup is expected to reconvene at a later stage to resume discussions, with some reports indicating a Saturday meeting is possible.

On the corporate front, shares in Hennes & Mauritz slumped as the clothing retailer’s second-quarter failed to meet analysts’ expectations.

Vivendi ended lower, having been up earlier in the session after the company said it has increased its stake in Telecom Italia to 14.9%.

In London, Tesco was in the black amid reports that private equity firms Affinity Equity Partners, Carlyle Group and CVC Capital Partners were among seven or eight preliminary bidders for its South Korean unit.

On the FTSE 250, Petrofac posted strong gains after Nomura upgraded the stock ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’.

Data released from the GfK market research group early in the session showed that German consumer sentiment is likely to worsen in July. The forward-looking Gfk consumer sentiment index is set to drop to 10.1 points for July from 10.2 in June, a touch short of analysts’ expectations of 10.2 points.

In the US, investors digested a raft of economic releases.

US initial weekly jobless claims rose by 3,000 to 271,000 in the week ended 20 June, exceeding consensus estimates for 265,000.

Meanwhile, and also Stateside, personal income and spending rose by 0.5% and 0.9% month-on-month in May.