Europe close: Investors hail progress on Greece

European stocks were modestly higher at the end of the week on the heels of progress overnight on debt relief for Greece.

At the closing bell the benchmark Stoxx 600 was higher by 0.66% or 2.55 points to 388.60, alongside a rise of 0.48% for the German Dax to 12,752.73 and a gain of 0.89% in the Cac-40 to 5,263.31.

Food & Beverage stocks paced gains on the Stoxx 600, rising 1.18%, while Financial Services issues rose 1.14%. Retail shares did worst, losing 1.26% after news broker than Amazon.com had bough rival Whole Foods for $13.7bn in cash.

In parallel, euro-dollar was edging higher by 0.41% to 1.1193 while front month Brent crude oil futures were gaining 0.70% to $47.25 per barrel on the ICE.

The Athens Stock Exchange's general index was up by 0.80% at 806.12 and near a two-year high. Meanwhile, the yield on the country's two-year debt was down by 38 basis points at 4.60%.

Overnight, euro area finance ministers completed the second programme review for Greece, agreeing to dispense a new tranche of €8.5bn in new loans for the stricken Mediterranean country, which would allow it to meet large bond repayments falling due in June.

They also agreed on a medium-term debt strategy for further debt relief, committing to increase relief should the country's economic expansion falter.

The International Monetary Fund also announced it would approve in principle a new stand-by credit line for Greece.

Commenting on Thursday night's developments, Antonio Garcia Pascual at Barclays Research said: "the next event for Greece will be the IMF board meeting on Greece (date not announced yet). Overall, we take today's outcome as good news for investors, as the IMF involvement and the enhanced debt relief commitments increase the chances of a better macroeconomic outcome for Greece in the longer term."

European car sales bounced back in May, rising by 7.7% year-on-year to 1.43m vehicles according to ACEA, following a drop of 6.8% in April.

In other economic news, Eurostat confirmed that the rate of increase in euro area consumer prices dropped from a 1.9% year-on-year clip in April to 1.4% for May.

At the core level, CPI ran at a 0.9% year-on-year clip in May, which was also in-line with the preliminary estimate.

French lender Societe Generale priced shares of its car leasing arm at the lower end of its target range ahead of its initial public offering, raising €1.2bn.

Fortress and Elliott dropped out of talk to purchase bad loans from Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena with a face value of €26bn, Reuters reported citing three sources.