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London - A pullback on the Greek stock market on fears of early elections kept a lid on gains in European equities on Tuesday.
Dutch animal feed company Nutreco also fell, sliding 5% after US commodities company Cargill said it was dropping a bid for Nutreco.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was 0.1% higher at 1 368.84 points and was up 4% since the start of 2014.
The Greek parliament on Tuesday failed to elect a new president by majority in a second-round vote. It has one more chance to do so next week to avert elections that could bring to power a party that wants to renegotiate the country's bailout deal, end years of austerity and write off some Greek debt.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, whose term is not due to end until mid-2016, has offered to bring pro-European independents into the government and hold elections by late next year if they support Stavros Dimas, the only candidate in the presidential race.
Athens' benchmark ATG equity index retreated 1.8%, having fallen nearly 20% in the second week of December.
"With many analysts predicting that Greek MPs will fall short of the votes needed to support presidential candidate Stavros Dimas, more destabilisation could be on the way for Greece, and by extension, the eurozone," said Spreadex financial analyst Connor Campbell.
UK deficit rises
Across Europe, Britain's benchmark FTSE 100 was up by 0.2%, Germany's DAX was flat while France's CAC stood 0.3% higher.
The FTSE 100 pared some of its earlier gains after data showed Britain's deficit with the rest of the world has risen to $42bn, equivalent to 6% of gross domestic product (GDP), matching the biggest deficit on record.
"The UK current account data has triggered some sell orders," said AvaTrade chief market analyst Naeem Aslam.
