For the first time in the five years of Greece's economic crisis, Athens failed to pay on time.
Three hundred million euros owed to IMF was due Friday.
Unfortunately, the Greek government failed to unlock fresh bailout funds from its creditors.
The cash-strapped nation instead asked that the amount be bundled with three other payments due in June into a single 1.6-billion euro lump sum to be paid by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, nervousness ahead of the release of the May jobs report in the US, which could affect the timing of the Fed rate hike, and results of the meeting of the 12-nation oil cartel, which could determine the direction of oil prices also caused many investors to stay in the sidelines.
Except for Shanghai stocks, most Asian stocks fell led by the Hang Seng which slipped 1 percent followed by the Nikkei and the Philippine Stock Exchange index.
Philippine shares fell a third of a percent, dragged by Universal Robina, which plunged over 3 percent, and San Miguel and Emperador, which slipped over 1 percent each.
For the week, the index fell 7-tenths of a percent, its third weekly loss.
source: www.abs-cbnnews.com
