Greece rattles eurozone stocks

Eurozone equity markets slumped Friday on the final day of a Group of Seven finance meeting, which has been largely overshadowed by festering concerns over Greece, dealers said.

Investors are increasingly worried that Greece and its creditors will not reach an agreement on reforming its bailout and Athens could struggle to meet looming debt repayments next week.

While London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies edged up 0.08 percent compared with Thursday's close to stand at 7,046.23 points in afternoon trading, Frankfurt's DAX 30 sank 1.01 percent to 11,559.67, and the CAC 40 in Paris dropped 1.21 percent to 5,075.75 points .

The European single currency meanwhile firmed to $1.0974 from $1.0947 late in New York on Thursday.

Dealer Farbod Mimeh at trading firm London Capital Group said investors were closely monitoring the G7 meeting "for any clues to get a clearer perspective on the Greek debt situation which continues to shackle European markets."

While Greece was not officially on the agenda of the Dresden meeting -- which was preparing for a wider summit of G7 leaders starting on June 7 -- the issue was at the top of everyone's minds.

Athens' coffers are near empty and the Greek government under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has said it has "no money" to make a series of repayments to the IMF totalling 1.6 billion euros ($1.75 billion) that are due beginning June 5 .

- Markets 'rattled' over Greece -

"European markets continued to feel the ongoing effects of the situation in Greece, with fresh fears that the country will be unable to make yet another repayment due to the IMF," said analyst Daniel Sugarman at traders ETX Capital.

"The Greek government has still not made it clear how it intends to make the 1.6-billion-euro repayment, the first tranche of which falls due next Friday."

Athens is negotiating to unlock some 7.2 billion euros in bailout cash with creditors -- the IMF, the European Union and the European Central Bank.

While Greek officials have in past days expressed hope of a deal by Sunday given the looming payment deadline, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis on Friday appeared to lower expectations by indicating that talks could go to the end of June, although he said a deal was close.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble meanwhile said "the positive reports out of Athens don't fully reflect the state of talks."

"European equity markets are rattled as discussions over Greece's finances rumble on," said IG analyst David Madden.

- Tokyo stretches winning streak -

Across in Asia on Friday, Japan's Nikkei chalked up an eleventh straight gain -- its best rally since February 1988 -- as the yen sat around 12-year lows against the dollar, while Shanghai extended losses following the previous day's hefty plunge.

Sydney jumped 1.12 percent and Seoul added 0.19 percent.

Shanghai -- which slumped 6.50 percent Thursday -- ended 0.18 percent lower after a volatile day that saw it swing from a 4.08 percent loss and a 1.69 percent gain. Hong Kong slipped 0.11 percent.

US stocks opened slightly lower Friday after a revision of official data showed the US economy contracted at an annual rate of 0.7 percent in the first quarter of the year.

The figures came in roughly as expected, showing a heavy drag from trade due to the West Coast ports slowdown, but consumer spending also was lower than originally thought.

Five minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.17 percent to 18,094.66 points.

The broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.13 percent to 2,118.09, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dipped 0.04 percent to 5,095.70.

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