EUROPE MARKETS: European Stocks Gain Ground As Euro Softens

By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch

European stocks turned higher Monday, getting some lift from positive developments in Greece's long-standing debt crisis and a weakening of the euro against the dollar.

After swinging between gains and losses, the Stoxx Europe 600 settled up 0.4% at 398.09, with health-care shares pacing an advance among all sectors.

Greece: The pan-European index began to cement gains in afternoon trade as Greek stocks climbed out of the red. Those moves came after Greek daily To Vima reported that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker submitted a proposal to break the stalemate (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/juncker-proposes-deal-to-end-greek-debt-deadlock-report-2015-05-18) between debt-strapped Greece and its international lenders.

Greece's Athex Composite rose 1.6% at 825.10, with shares of Eurobank Ergasias SA gaining 7.7%, and Piraeus Bank SA up 7%. The yield on Greek 2-year debt came off session highs, and was up 2.1 percentage points at 22.53% as prices fell, according to data from Tradeweb.

Greek assets had suffered deeper losses earlier in the session, with staff at the International Monetary Fund (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/greece-nears-endgame-as-large-june-payments-loom-2015-05-18) saying it appeared Athens wouldn't be able to repay EUR1.5 billion euros ($1.71 billion) due to the fund in June, without further financial aid.

Greece's debt troubles continue to be "a sore point" for the markets as questions swirl about "how will the country be able to survive when they are literally strapped for cash and they are scraping the bottom of the Treasury boxes just to pay the bill," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade.

While Greek woes linger, investors are thinking ahead to Thursday, when the first look at manufacturing and services reports, or purchasing-managers indexes, for May from the eurozone will be released, said Aslam. "They want to see how effective is the ECB's QE. Surely it has made an impact [considering] GDP data released last week."

Read: Modest eurozone growth keeps ECB QE on track (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/modest-eurozone-growth-keeps-ecb-qe-on-track-2015-05-13)

Ahead of PMI data, minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve's most recent meeting are due Wednesday.

Indexes: The euro (EURUSD) also wavered between gains and losses against the greenback Monday, earlier hitting an intraday high of $1.1454, according to FactSet data. The dollar late last week climbed above $1.14 for the first time since February. A weaker euro helps bolster exports for European corporations by making products and services relatively cheaper compared with the U.S. dollar.

Germany's DAX 30 , which has recently been sensitive to moves in the euro, had dropped intraday as the euro gripped the $1.14 level. But as the euro softened to roughly $1.1354, the DAX was able to advance, ending up roughly 1.3% at 11,594.28.

Also Monday, France's CAC 40 ended up about 0.4% at 5,012.31, and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.1% to 6,968.87.

But Italy's FTSE MIB fell 1.2%, with a number of its constituents moving lower as shares traded without dividend rights. Energy company Eni SpA fell 3.5%, power provider Enel SpA was down 0.3% and eyewear maker Luxottica Group SpA shed 1.4%.

Corporates: Among other movers, Aveva Group PLC surged 9% after The Sunday Times said a group of European and American conglomerates are working on bids for the software developer (http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/business/Tech_and_Media/article1557075.ece).

OMV AG shares lost 8.3% as the Austrian oil and gas company posted a 46% drop in first-quarter net income (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/omv-profit-falls-on-low-oil-prices-shutdowns-2015-05-18), due to low oil prices and production shutdowns in Yemen and Libya.

Inmarsat PLC dropped 2.9% after the mobile satellite communications services company said the launch of its third Global Xpress satellite has been delayed (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/inmarsat-delays-launch-of-global-xpress-satellite-2015-05-18). The delay will have a small negative effect on 2015 revenue and earnings, it said.

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