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London - European stock markets on Wednesday shrugged off Greece's new anti-austerity government pressing home its demand for debt relief and rolling back its privatisation programme.
London's benchmark FTSE 100 index of top companies dipped 0.03% to stand at 6 809.31 points and in Paris the CAC 40 slipped 0.06% compared with Tuesday's close to 4 621.44.
However Frankfurt's DAX 30 climbed 0.51% to 10 682.48 points.
But Greek stocks plunged 8.5% after the new anti-austerity government called for a "fair" re-negotiation of the country's multi-billion-euro bailout, with banking stocks hit particularly hard.
READ: Greek prime minister halts port sale
The main banks had collectively lost nearly a quarter of their market capitalisation in late afternoon trade.
National Bank plummeted 27.2% and Piraeus Bank lost 28.4%.
Meanwhile, the rate of return on 10-year Greek bonds rose above the symbolic barrier of 10%.
Greek voters over the weekend handed a decisive victory to radical left party Syriza, putting the country on a collision course with the EU and international creditors over its bailout and giving rise to fears that the country could exit the eurozone - what is being dubbed a "Grexit".
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Wednesday told his cabinet that Greece would seek a "fair, mutually beneficial solution" with its EU peers to renegotiate its €240bn EU-IMF bailout and make its huge debt socially manageable.
In a speech to the cabinet - his first since taking office - the 40-year-old premier however insisted that Greece's new leaders were no longer willing to bow to the "politics of submission", in a clear swipe at Brussels and the International Monetary Fund.
And in another move the government halted the privatisation of Greece's main port, Piraeus, which Chinese shipping giant COSCO had planned to turn into its new European hub.
Greece's previous conservative government had planned to sell 67% of the port authority. The tender had a March deadline for the submission of offers.
Meanwhile the euro dropped to $1.1342 from $1.1380 late in New York on Tuesday.
Apple rises
US stocks opened higher on Wednesday following strong earnings reports from technology giant Apple and aerospace powerhouse Boeing.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.25% to 17 430.47 points in the first five minutes of trading.
The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.49% to 2 039.50, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.99% to 4 727.61.
Apple bolted 6.4% higher after disclosing that first-quarter profits were a record $18bn on booming sales of big-screen iPhone models, especially in China.
Dow member Boeing followed suit, rising 3.3% after reporting that fourth-quarter profits rose 18.9% to $1.5bn on strong commercial aircraft deliveries.
The robust earnings reversed negative momentum from Tuesday, when a stream of disappointing profit reports sent markets sharply lower.
Investors are eyeing the conclusion of a two-day Federal Reserve meeting Wednesday and the release of a policy statement that will be scrutinised for signals on when the central bank could raise interest rates.
"If the Fed demonstrates concern over slowing global growth or inflation in its statement, that will be taken as dovish... (and) will probably be seen as positive by markets, at least initially," said CMC Markets UK analyst Jasper Lawler.
Asian stock markets ended mostly higher Wednesday, with Tokyo gaining 0.15%, Sydney adding 0.10%, and Seoul rising 0.47%.
Hong Kong shares climbed 0.22% but Shanghai fell 1.41% on liquidity fears after some banks tightened borrowing requirements for investors.
