LONDON: European stock markets pushed higher on Thursday as traders focused on the Greek debt saga and outlook for interest rates on both sides of the Atlantic.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index climbed 0.77 percent compared with Wednesday's close to trade at 6,990.72 points, while Frankfurt's DAX 30 grew 0.53 percent to 12,099.13 points and the CAC 40 in Paris advanced 1.02 percent to 5,189.32 points.
In foreign exchange, the European single currency slid to $1.0736 from $1.0780 late in New York on Wednesday.
"Athens has vowed to repay the IMF today and the market is optimistic the agreement will be honoured," said David Madden, market analyst at IG trading group.
Greece on Thursday made a 459-million-euro loan payment to the International Monetary Fund, an official said, with the country's precarious finances having been closely monitored since the arrival of a new hard-left government in January.
The new Greek government is engaged in difficult negotiations to renegotiate the terms of its EU-IMF bailout, and as a result has received none of the remaining payments left in the multi-billion loan package.
Later this month, Athens has to make interest payments of nearly 400 million euros and roll over 2.4 billion euros in six- and three-month treasury bills due to mature on April 14 and 17.
Athens on Wednesday raised 1.14 billion euros in six-month treasury bills. On Thursday it announced the sale of another 625 million euros in three-month bills next week.
Meanwhile, Portugal saw the yield on its two-year bonds briefly fall into negative territory on Thursday, joining Germany and France.
The ECB's 1.1-trillion-euro bond buying programme has seen the rate of return for short and even medium-term sovereign debt fall into negative territory for several eurozone countries.
That means investors are in effect paying money to lend to the countries, but given fears of deflation and market volatility, many investors consider the bonds as a safe haven investment.
- Attention on Fed intentions -
Attention among traders Thursday was also on the Federal Reserve.
Minutes of the US central bank's last policy meeting released late in New York on Wednesday showed a split over when interest rates should again start rising in the world's biggest economy.
According to the minutes of the March 17-18 meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee, "several participants" thought conditions were right for a June hike in the federal funds rate, which has been stuck near zero since late 2008.
Others deemed the economy would not be able to weather a hike until later in the year, while "a couple" said liftoff would remain unlikely until 2016.
The Bank of England meanwhile, as expected, kept its main interest rate at 0.50 percent in its last monetary policy meeting before Britain's general election on May 7.
"The Bank of England, like its US counterpart, is also weighing up the timing of its first rate hike (in years), although it appears to be a little behind at the moment despite the strength of the (British) economy as the country flirts with deflation," said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda trading group.
Most Asian stock markets retreated after minutes from the US Federal Reserve showed policymakers split on when to hike interest rates, while Hong Kong jumped 2.7 percent as Chinese mainlanders were able use a new system to trade shares on the city's exchange.
US equities opened on the up side, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing 0.31 percent to 17,957.96 in the first five minutes of trading.
The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.26 percent to 2,087.21, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.39 percent to 4,970 20.
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