Europe open: Stocks slide on Greek debt woes

LONDON (ShareCast) - Fears over Greece's debt crisis weighed on European stocks in morning trade after Eurozone finance ministers said they won't release further aid until bailout terms are met. A government official on Sunday said Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem on the phone to discuss the progress of debt negotiations, Bloomberg reported.

Tsipras asked Merkel to convene an emergency European Union leaders' summit, Germany's Bild newspaper reported Monday, but a Greek spokesman denied the claims.

Greece owes payments to the pensioners and state employees this week, and the International Monetary Fund on 6 May.

Christian Schulz, senior economist at Berenberg, said: "The unusually candid way in which Eurozone finance ministers criticised their Greek counterpart at the Riga Eurogroup meeting on Friday shows not just the lack of real progress. It makes it plain that it is Greece that has to change its stance, returning to the policies that had started to bear fruit in 2014.

He added: "We maintain our probabilities: 30% risk of Grexit, 70% probability that, possibly after some serious political strains in Athens, Greece stays in the euro and returns more or less to the path of virtue." In other euro-area news, the European Central Bank announces its latest tranche of asset purchases and policymakers Benoit Coeure, Vitor Constancio and Daniele Nouy are speaking early on.

German imports fell 1.4% in March compared to a year ago, less than the 2% drop expected by analysts.

Among companies, HSBC Holdings (Xetra: HBC2.DE - news) rallied following reports it's considering spinning off its UK retail bank for about £20bn.

Volkswagen AG (Other OTC: VLKAF - news) gained after Chairman Ferdinand Piech resigned from the German carmaker.

Sandvik AB (Stockholm: SAND.ST - news) jumped after the Swedish industrial group said currency effects will add about 900m kronor to profit in the second quarter.

The euro fell 0.17% to $1.0855.

Brent crude dropped 0.1% to $65.21 per barrel, according to the ICE.