UK Market Modestly Down

(RTTNews) - The UK market was modestly lower on Monday afternoon, as Eurozone finance ministers gather in Brussels to discuss how to proceed with Greek debt funding. EU finance ministers ended their talks last week without any major breakthrough on the future course of action on Greece. They will continue their negotiations later today.

On a day of very little economic news, Eurostat reported that the euro area trade surplus increased in December as the decline in imports was faster than a fall in exports.

The trade surplus increased to a seasonally adjusted 23.3 billion euros in December from 21.6 billion euros in November. Economists had forecast a surplus of 19 billion euros.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks was losing 0.17 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, was falling 0.12 percent.

The FTSE 100 index fell 0.19 percent.

Intertek fell 3.2 percent and Fresnillo was down 3 percent.

Centrica and SSE declined 2.8 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively.

Tullow Oil climbed 2.3 percent. SAB Miller and Aberdeen Asset Management gained 1.8 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively.

Most other markets in the region were trading lower.

The Asian stocks rose broadly, following a record close on Wall Street Friday, buoyed by a report which showed Japan's economy recovered from recession in the last quarter of 2014.

In the U.S., the markets are closed for the President's Day holiday. In the previous session, the Dow rose 0.3 percent and the S&P 500 gained 0.4 percent to set a fresh record high, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.8 percent to its highest level since early 2000.

Crude for March delivery dropped $0.50 to $52.28 per barrel, while gold advanced $6.6 to $1233.7 a troy ounce.