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London - European stocks fell for a third straight day on Tuesday as investors grew increasingly worried about lack of progress in negotiations between Greece and its creditors.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 was down 0.7% at 1 509.17 points by 08:02GMT, following a 1.6% fall on Monday, its biggest loss since late May.
Earlier in the session, the index fell to 1 503.89, its lowest since February. It is still up more than 10% for the year.
Changes its tune
Greece and its creditors hardened their stances on Monday after talks aimed at preventing a default and possible euro exit faltered. That prompted Germany's EU commissioner to say the time had come to prepare for a "state of emergency.
"In fact relations are now so bad it is hard to see how any agreement can possibly be reached at this late stage ... unless one or the other side changes its tune we're heading for a default, the only question is when," Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said in a note.
Concern over the deadlocked talks weighed on euro zone banks , which fell 1.1% as peripheral bond yields rose.
Greece's Athex share index was down only 0.6%, a mild move by the volatile standards of the index, although one which took its drop since Friday to more than 10%. Greek banks were still some of the biggest decliners on the market.
Push back delivery
Henkel dropped 3.4% after a report that it had lost its bid to buy a Procter & Gamble hair-care business, which includes the Wella and Clairol brands.
US cosmetics group Coty won auctions to acquire three businesses from P&G for as much as $12bn, said a source. They include P&G's hair-care operations. [ID: nL1N0Z2005]
Other notable movers included Airbus, which shed 2.5%. American Airlines said it will push back delivery of 35 Airbus family jetliners by several years, although JetBlue Airways is eyeing a long-range plane from Airbus.
