Greek shares lead Europe lower after debt talks break down
* Greek shares down 4.6 pct after rescue talks collapse
* Euro STOXX 50 down 1.3 pct, FTSEurofirst 300 down 0.6 pct
* Danish jewellery maker Pandora (LSE: 0NQC.L - news) surges after earnings beat
By Francesco Canepa
LONDON, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Athens stocks led declines on
European share indexes on Tuesday after debt talks between
Greece and euro zone finance ministers broke down, putting the
country's future in the euro zone at risk.
The Athex index was down 4.6 percent by 0837 GMT,
with Greek banks down 9.3 percent.
Euro zone banks, which have a large exposure to the
region's sovereign debt market, shed 1.7 percent.
After the market close on Monday, Greece rejected a proposal
for a six-month extension of its international bailout package
as "unacceptable". Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem,
who chaired the meeting, said Athens had until Friday to request
an extension, otherwise the bailout would expire at the end of
the month.
"It's a big risk and the pressure is immense," said Joost
Van Leenders, chief economist of multi-asset solutions at BNP (Paris: FR0000131104 - news)
Paribas Investment Partners. "The parties have to move and the
room for manoeuvre is pretty small."
To protect itself from a Greece-related selloff in stocks,
BNP Paribas IP recently cut its "overweight" position in
equities to "neutral" and bought an option to sell the Euro
STOXX 50 index, Van Leenders said.
The Euro STOXX 50 was down 1.3 percent, while the
pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was down 0.6
percent at 1,493.77 points.
On the earnings front, Danish jewellery maker and retailer
Pandora surged 15 percent after it reported
fourth-quarter operating profit above expectations, and said its
profit margin will rise in 2015.
Europe bourses in 2015: http://link.reuters.com/pap87v
Asset performance in 2015: http://link.reuters.com/gap87v
Today's European research round-up
($1 = 0.8817 euros)
(editing by John Stonestreet)