Monday marked a ninth straight session of gaining for European stocks which were driven by the Greek relief, as the cash-strapped country is now expected to repay loans to creditors.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index gained 0.4% to 407.25, building on a 4.3% advance from last week.
Germany’s DAX 30 index added 0.6% to 11,747.65 and France’s CAC 40 index rose 0.7% to 5,160.71.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index climbed 0.3% to 6,792.48.
EUR/USD bounced off its two-month lows, adding 0.15% to settle at 1.0847.
On Friday eurozone leaders
reached an accord with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on hard
austerity measures needed for a third bailout package.
Also Friday, the EU approved a bridge loan of 7.16 billion euros to Greece, targeted at helping Athens meet a €4.2 billion debt
payment to the ECB on Monday, as well as clear its arrears with the
International Monetary Fund.
According to Bloomberg, today Greece has given the order to repay €6.8 billion to creditors, using the bridge loan.
The talks on a new bailout for Greece will likely
last for weeks, as the lenders hammer out the final terms.
The IMF and European creditors stick to different opinions on whether Greece should be granted any kind of debt relief. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday she was ready to consider further debt concessions to Athens once the latest raft of economic reforms has been implemented, according to an interview with German broadcaster ARD.
Greece’s banks reopened on Monday after a three-week closure, although the authorities kept the daily cash withdrawal at €60, adding a weekly limit of €420. The Athens exchange remained closed on Monday.
