European Stocks Slide On Greek Woes

(RTTNews) - European stocks fell sharply Tuesday amid political turmoil in Greece.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is expected to meet President Karolos Papoulias in Athens today to request general elections on January 25, after parliament yesterday rejected his presidential candidate.

Samaras has been implementing a number of austerity measures as dictated by Greece's international creditors in return for a 240 billion euros bailout.

But Alexis Tsipras, leader of the radical leftist party Syriza which seems to be the current favorite of the electorate, wants Athens to renegotiate the bailout deal with the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

On a day of very little economic or corporate news the Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks fell 1.55 percent.

The German DAX index lost 1.22 percent, the French CAC 40 lost 1.68 percent and the UK's FTSE 100 index slipped 1.3 percent. Greek shares were down a bit, adding to this year's big losses.

Next PLC shares rose 3.22 percent. The clothing retailer reported higher sales but issued a cautious outlook.

U.K house prices grew at a slower pace as expected in December, survey figures from the Nationwide Building Society showed.

The house price index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.2 percent month-over-month in December, slower than November's 0.3 percent increase. This was in line with the consensus estimate and marked the third consecutive month of increase.