European stock markets slide

LONDON: Europe's main stock markets slumped on Tuesday after losses on Wall Street and market uncertainty resurfaced over Greece's eurozone future.

London's benchmark FTSE 100 slid 1.0 percent to 7,031.7 points, with sentiment also taking a knock after disappointing British growth data ahead of next week's general election.

Frankfurt's DAX 30 index shed 1.25 percent to 11,888 points and the CAC 40 in Paris lost 1.57 percent to stand at 5,186.10 in afternoon deals compared with Monday's close.

In foreign exchange activity, the euro rose to $1.0945 from $1.0889 late in New York on Monday.

"The market goodwill (over Greece)... has all but disappeared," said Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex trading group.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday said he was confident that tough negotiations with his country's EU-IMF creditors would reach a deal by early May.

Greece has been trying to negotiate a deal that would unlock 7.2 billion euros ($7.8 billion) in remaining EU-IMF bailout money that the debt-ridden country needs to avoid default and a possible exit from the euro.

But the Tsipras government, elected in January on an anti-austerity ticket, has resisted pressure to continue with an austerity policy of cuts in return for the cash.

In Britain, which unlike Germany and France, is not part of the eurozone, official data on Tuesday showed its economy grew far slower than expected in the first quarter of 2015, in turn delivering a blow to Prime Minister David Cameron's government just nine days before a general election.

Gross domestic product expanded by 0.3 percent between January and March compared with 0.6 percent in the final quarter of 2014, the Office for National Statistics said in an initial estimate.

GDP, the main indicator of growth, is the last major piece of data on the economy before Britain votes in a knife-edge general election on May 7.

Opinion polls show Cameron's centre-right Conservatives neck and neck with the main centre-left opposition Labour Party.

On the corporate front, shares in BP rose 0.51 percent to 479.35 pence despite the British energy giant announcing sliding profit for the first quarter of the year compared with the same period in 2014, amid plunging oil prices.

BP said underlying replacement cost profit -- a measure of earnings watched by the market -- slumped 39 percent to $2.1 billion.

But with the profit figure beating analysts' expectations, BP's share price was among the few risers in London.

Asian markets mostly fell Tuesday following losses on Wall Street, with Shanghai losing more than one percent a day after hitting a seven-year high.