Europe open: Investors wait on meeting of finance chiefs, digest Spanish Socialist primaries

European markets have started the day on a mixed note with investors in a holding pattern ahead of an afternoon meeting between euro area finance chiefs to discuss the disbursement of further aid and possible debt relief for Athens.

The economic situation in the euro area and post-programme surveillance for Spain were also expected to be on the table.

As of 0820 BST the benchmark Stoxx 600 was flat at 391.52, with the Dax and Cac-40 also unchanged at 12,639.04 and 5,324.81, respectively.

Milan's FTSE Mibtel on the other hand was moving 1.26% lower to 21,293.39.

In parallel, front month Brent crude oil futures were gaining slightly more than half a percentage point to trade at $53.98 a barrel on the ICE.

Commenting on the likely content of Monday night's Eurofin meeting, Jim Reid at Deutsche Bank said: "the discussion today will be about how much debt relief is required which will subsequently pave the way for the next tranche of bailout aid to be released. The big sticking point continues to be the participation of the IMF and the ongoing clashes between the Fund and Germany."

At the weekend, Spanish Socialists voted in their party primaries to elect the more leftist of three candidates, Pedro Sanchez, to lead the the party.

The primaries saw 50.21% of the ballots cast in his favour, versus 39.94% for his main rival Susana Diaz, with the latter considered to be closer to the party's 'establishment'.

After the result of the elections was made known, Sanchez called for a motion of impeachment against the current centre-right Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, and for a repeal of the labour market reforms implemented by the ruling PP government in Madrid.

Nevertheless, analysts at Barclays Research were relatively upbeat telling clients they still expected Spanish economic growth to outperform that of the rest of the Eurozone although a slightly negative reaction was expected in the country's sovereign debt.

Spain's benchmark 10-year bond yield only edged higher by one basis point to 1.59% in reaction.

Also on the economic calendar for Monday, at 14:00 BST investors were waiting on a speech from the president of the Federal Reserve bank of Philadelphia, Patrick Harker, with his opposite number at the Minneapolis Fed, Neel Kashkari, set to to take to the podium a half hour later together with Chicago Fed chief Charles Evans after the close of markets in New York.

Volkswagen was seeing slight gains on the back of a Bloomberg report that private equity outfits Permira and CVC Capital Partners were running the ruler over its Italian motorcycle unit, Ducati.

Meanwhile, Dassault Aviation was reportedly eyeing a sale of its Rafale fighter jet to Mumbai.

Brussels asked that private investors inject another €1.3bn into Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, according to Il Messaggero.