European equities lower on ECB decision, Greece down 5%, BNP steeply falls
On Thursday European equities traded lower in morning trade, after the European Central Bank (ECB) put more pressure on Greece to come to an agreement with its lenders over the future of its bailout program.
Late Wednesday,the ECB took a hard line on Greek debt, cancelling a waiver that allowed banks to use Greek government debt as collateral for loans.
The ECB said it was no longer able to assume there would be a successful conclusion to the Greek government's bailout program review. Since coming to power almost two weeks ago, the new Greek government – led by the Syriza party – has sought to overhaul the nation's bailout program with European Institutions.
The pan-European Euro Stoxx 600 Index lost ground, with all major stock exchanges showing losses.
Europe's so-called periphery was the worst hit, with the Portuguese PSI 20 down 1.5 percent, the Spanish IBEX 35 down 1.2 percent and the Italian FTSE MIB down 1.2 percent.
Regarding individual stocks, French bank BNP Paribas reported a sharp decline in full-year net profit on Thursday, of 157 million euros ($178 million) in 2014 - down 96.7 percent on the previous year. Shares down 3 percent in the morning session.
Munich Re shares declined 0.8 percent after reporting net profit for its fourth quarter that was slightly below expectations.
Shares of AstraZeneca fell 2.7 percent after the pharma firm reported a fourth-quarter loss on Thursday morning.
Greek stocks were down 5 percent during the morning session. Greece's Bank of Piraeus lost 27 percent at the open, the National Bank of Greece was down 26 percent and Alpha Bank lost 13 percent.
The Greek stock exchange opened down nearly 9 percent in reaction to the ECB's decision, with some banking stocks losing up to a fifth of their value.
"What this means is that Greek banks will now have to go to the Greek Central Bank for their only conduit of emergency funding, but this particular tap can be shut off very quickly," Michael Hewson, the chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said in a morning note.
