The UK market declined on Monday, as the entire continent was rattled by concerns about Greece leaving the eurozone. Sentiment was also impacted by weak cues from Wall Street in the previous session. Meanwhile, China facilitated the addition of as much as 400 billion yuan of liquidity to the financial system, fuelling concerns about a slowdown in the world's second-largest economy.
Political parties in Greece have failed to form a coalition government. Fresh elections would mean weeks of uncertainty in the eurozone over Greece's continued membership in the single currency zone. At a meeting in Brussels later today, eurozone finance ministers are likely to increase pressure on Greece to continue with austerity and structural measures.
Fears concerning the Spanish banking system intensified after last Friday's government diktat requesting setting aside of 30 billion euros to cover losses on real estate loans.
Spain sold about 2.90 billion euros in 12 and 19-month bills, close to the higher end of the 2-3 billion euro target. However, demand slackened from the previous auction, while yields were also higher. An Italian bond auction also revealed waning demand for the nation's debt amid the developments brewing in the eurozone.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives suffered a stinging defeat in the North Rhine-Westphalia state elections on Sunday.
Over the weekend, the People's Bank of China allowed banks to boost lending, by further lowering the amount of money that they should hold as reserve. The PBoC on Saturday slashed the reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points to 20 percent for large commercial banks.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks is declining 2.50 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. Companies, is dropping 1.83 percent.
The FTSE 100 index is losing about 1.85 percent.
Aberdeen Asset Management is declining 4.1 percent.
Anglo American is losing 3.1 percent. Xstrata is falling 3.4 percent.
Lonmin is declining 4.2 percent after the precious metals miner reported a sharp decline in first-half profit before taxes, reflecting a weak pricing environment and higher unit costs.
Barclays is declining 5.3 percent and Royal Bank of Scotland is dropping 4.8 percent.
HSBC is losing 1.6 percent. The lender announced the sale of some operations in South America for $400 million.
Rank Group is gaining 4.8 percent. The gaming company has conditionally agreed to acquire Gala Casinos for a total cash consideration of 205 million pounds.
Elsewhere in Europe, the German DAX is declining 2.04 percent and the French CAC 40 is falling 2.33 percent. Switzerland's SMI is retreating 1.26 percent.
In economic news, Eurozone industrial production declined unexpectedly in March, the latest figures from Eurostat showed. Industrial production fell 0.3 percent month-on-month in March, against economists' forecast for a 0.4 percent increase. This followed a 0.8 percent rise in February
Germany's wholesale price inflation accelerated to 2.4 percent in April from 2.2 percent in March, owing to higher prices of solid fuels and petroleum products, the Federal Statistical Office said. Economists had forecast an increase to 2.3 percent.
Across Asia/Pacific, Australia's All Ordinaries and Japan's Nikkei 225 gained about 0.2 percent each. China's Shanghai Composite Index and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.60 percent and 1.15 percent, respectively.
In the U.S., futures point to a lower open on Wall Street. In the previous session, stocks drifted to the downside in the afternoon, ending the day mostly lower. The major averages ended the session mixed, with the Nasdaq closing just above the unchanged line. While the Nasdaq edged up 0.01 percent, the Dow and the S&P 500 dipped around 0.3 percent each.
In the commodity space, crude for June delivery is falling $1.99 to $94.14 per barrel and June gold is losing $22.9 to $1561.1 a troy ounce.
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Market Analysis
June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.