LONDON (Alliance News) - UK shares are seen opening flat Monday, amid ongoing concerns about the state of Greece's finance, after a letter written by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras emerged over the weekend warning the International Monetary Fund that the country could not pay its debt obligation without EU aid.
Tsipras wrote to International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde warning that last week's EUR750 million IMF repayment would be missed unless the European Central Bank immediately raised its curbs on Greece?s ability to issue short-term debt, the Financial Times reported Monday.
The letter, first reported by the Greek daily Kathimerini but which the FT said it had independently confirmed, raises questions about how close Athens is to bankruptcy with the next EUR300 million IMF payment due on June 5, according to the British newspaper.
Athens ultimately made the payment without financial assistance from the bloc but only by tapping a rarely used emergency account Greece holds at the fund.
IG says futures indicates the FTSE 100 to open flat Monday at 6,961.1. The index closed down 0.2% at 6,960.49 on Friday after a series of weak economic data releases in the US.
On Wall Street on Friday, the DJIA and the S&P 500 both ended up 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite closed down 0.1%.
In Asia on Monday, the Japanese Nikkei trades up 0.7%, the Hang Seng is down 1.0% and the Shanghai Composite up 0.2%.
In the UK corporate calendar, full-year results are due from FTSE 100 engineering outsourcer Babcock International Group, as well as from FTSE 250 outsourcer Mitie Group, imaging technology company e2v Technologies and food company Cranswick
In the economic calendar there is German Bundesbank monthly report at 1200 BST, and the US National Association of Home Builders housing market index at 1500 BST.
By Neil Thakrar; neilthakrar@alliancenews.com; @NeilThakrar1
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