European stocks mixed before Greece meet

European stock markets traded mixed on Monday, as investors in London awaited a Bank of England decision on interest rates after Britain's general election, while Greece occupied eurozone minds.

London's benchmark FTSE 100 index rose 0.17 percent to stand at 7,059.13 points in late morning deals.

Frankfurt's DAX 30 lost 0.57 percent to 11,642.86 points and the CAC 40 in Paris shed 1.45 percent to 5,016.62 on profit-taking.

The euro dropped to $1.1160 from $1.1208 late in New York on Friday.

Most European indices had shot higher on Friday as US job creation figures, while solid, were viewed by the market as not being strong enough for the US Federal Reserve to begin raising interest rates next year.

London's stock market had rallied also as Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives held on to power in Britain's general election, with the country avoiding political instability at least in the short term.
"Post-election and the FTSE 100 continues its positive run higher on the back of the decisive yet surprising result," said James Hughes, chief market analyst at Etoro trading group.

"Greece is yet again dominating the session, and is likely to dominate the week as today’s euro area finance ministers meeting has the country and a possible deal at the top of the agenda."

Greece pushed Europe on Monday to back its reform plans and free up cash before a huge repayment to the IMF, but ministers meeting in Brussels warned there would be no bailout deal yet.

The eurozone's 19 ministers meet in Brussels one day before Greece must pay a 750 million euro ($840 million) debt bill to the International Monetary Fund that some fear the Mediterranean nation cannot afford.
In London, the Bank of England was Monday set to keep its main interest rate at 0.50 percent as Britain battles the risk of deflation.

On the corporate front, shares in Airbus tumbled 4.21 percent to 60.73 euros as the European aerospace giant said it will continue test flights for its A400M military transport plane.

This was despite the crash Saturday of one of the aircraft on a test flight in Spain that killed four employees.

Asian stock markets mostly rose Monday following the US jobs report, while investor sentiment was also boosted by China's decision to cut interest rates for the third time in six months, analysts said.

China's central bank on Sunday cut rates by 25 basis points -- after two similar moves since November -- as it tries to support the world's number two economy, which grew last year at its slowest pace since 1990.