London--European stock markets fell Wednesday, reversing early gains, with attention on Greece where bond rates surged and equities slumped as the new anti-austerity government seeks to renegotiate the country's debt.
The technology sector was also in focus after Apple's record earnings posted overnight.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies dipped 0.06 percent to stand at 6,807.52 points around midday in the British capital.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 slipped 0.13 percent to 10,615.01 points and the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.36 percent to 4,607.78 compared with Tuesday's close.
The euro dropped to $1.1375 from $1.1380 late in New York on Tuesday.
Markets had closed lower on Tuesday, weighed down by anxiety over Greece's new anti-austerity leadership and unexpectedly disappointing US economic data that sent Wall Street sinking.
But after the close of US trade, Apple announced that its quarterly profit rocketed to a corporate record $18 billion (15.9 billion euros) at the end of last year on booming sales of big-screen iPhone models, especially in China.
That pushed up shares in technology groups trading around the globe.
"The European stock markets are lower for a second consecutive session, which I think is driven mainly by speculators taking profit... after the ECB's policy decision last week," said Fawad Razaqzada, technical analyst at trading group Forex.com.
"Granted, the so-called 'Grexit' fears are back as the new Greek prime minister (Alexis) Tsipras seems determined to re-negotiate bailout terms for his country in a bid to relieve austerity. This has driven the yield on the benchmark government debt above 10 percent which is the highest since early January."
The European Central Bank (ECB) last week announced that it would inject more than 1.0 trillion euros of stimulus into the stagnant eurozone economy.
The pledge by ECB chief Mario Draghi for the bank to buy 60 billion euros of bonds per month through to late 2016 exceeded market expectations for the monthly pace of the quantitative easing (QE) programme.
Meanwhile over the weekend in Greece, voters handed a decisive victory to radical left party Syriza, putting the country on a collision course with the EU and international creditors over its bailout and giving rise to fears that the country could exit the eurozone -- what is being dubbed a "Grexit".
The new left-wing government will halt the privatisation of the country's biggest port Piraeus, which China's COSCO group has bid for, an official in charge of the process said Wednesday.
Greece's previous conservative government had planned to sell 67 percent of the port authority. The tender had a March deadline for the submission of offers.
The Athens stock market slid 6.4 percent in Wednesday trading, as the rate of return on 10-year Greek bonds rose above the symbolic barrier of 10 percent.
AFP
