European stocks decline amid Greece uncertainty; Dax down 0.20%

Investing.com - European stocks trended lower on Wednesday, as ongoing uncertainty over whether Greece is about to receive its next tranche of financial aid and concerns over the worsening of the euro zone's debt crisis continued to weigh on investor confidence.

During European morning trade, the EURO STOXX 50 fell 0.31%, France’s CAC 40 retreated 0.37%, while Germany’s DAX 30 slipped 0.20%.

Sentiment found some support after German newspaper Bild reported on Tuesday that Greece is to receive EUR44 billion of financial aid in one payment, citing German government sources.

But investors remained cautious amid ongoing divisions between officials from the International Monetary Fund and Europe on how best to reduce Greece’s debt to manageable levels.

A decision on unlocking the country’s next tranche of aid, worth EUR31.5 billion, has been postponed until 20 November.

Markets were also jittery after the ZEW Centre for Economic Research said on Tuesday that its index of German economic sentiment fell to minus 15.7 in November from October’s reading of minus 11.5. Analysts had expected the index come in at minus 9.8 this month.

Financial stocks were mostly steady as France saw BNP Paribas ease up 0.02% and Societe General dip 0.04%, while Germany's Deutsche Bank edged 0.06% higher.

Meanwhile, peripheral lenders slipped lower, as crowds gathered in Spain and in Italy to protest local austerity measures. Shares in BBVA and Banco Santander fell 0.42% and 0.14%, while Intesa Sanpaolo and Unicredit declined 0.48% and 0.62%.

On the upside, Vivendi surged 4.34% after the company said earnings will fall less-than-expected this year, helped by cost cuts and video-game demand.

In London, commodity-heavy FTSE 100 slid 0.61%, weighed by losses in oil and mining stocks.

Royal Dutch Shell-A saw shares tumble 1.62% and Royal Dutch Shell-B dropped 1.79%, while Eurasian Natural Resources plummeted 1.83%.

Copper producers added to losses, as shares in Xstrata and Kazakhmys slumped 0.82% and 0.95% respectively.

In the financial sector, Barclays retreated 0.32% and HSBC Holdings dropped 0.39%, while the Royal Bank of Scotland declined 0.50%. Lloyds Banking inched higher on the other hand, with shares easing up 0.02%.

Elsewhere, ICAP dove 7.45%, after the world's largest broker of transactions between banks said that fiscal first-half pretax profit declined 26% to GBP137 million as Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis hurt trading.

The company also said full-year profit would be at the "low end" of the GBP300 million to GBP332 million range forecast by analysts.

In the U.S., equity markets pointed to a higher open. The Dow Jones Industrial Average futures pointed to a 0.54% rise, S&P 500 futures signaled a 0.71% increase, while the Nasdaq 100 futures indicated a 0.75% gain.

Later in the day, the U.S. was to produce government data on retail sales, producer price inflation and business inventories. In addition, the Federal Reserve was to publish the minutes of its most recent policy-setting meeting.