* Greece, India, health care worries hit stocks
* Pharma stocks slip in Europe after U.S. vote
* Euro falls on Greece uncertainty
By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent
LONDON, March 22 (Reuters) - World stocks slipped and the
euro wobbled on Monday on renewed investor worries over Greece's
debt crisis and after a surprise interest rate hike by India
last week stoked concern about riskier assets.
Pharmaceutical stocks were particularly in focus after the
U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval to a sweeping
healthcare overhaul. []
MSCI's all-country world stocks index <.MIWD00000PUS> was
down around a third of a percent, with the emerging markets
sub-index <.MSCIEF> down 0.8 percent.
The falls took this year's gains for emerging market stocks
-- widely considered the best bet for returns by many investors
-- to barely even.
There was continued confusion about what kind of support
Greece might need or get to help it sort out its debt crisis.
Germany urged Athens to solve its problems alone while Italy
backed European Union support. []
At the same time, equity markets in Europe were being
dragged lower by the pharma sector, now facing a new healthcare
climate in the United States.
"You might find the pharmas are somewhat friendless out
there at the moment," said Stephen Pope, chief global equity
strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald in London.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 <> was down 0.5
percent. The STOXX Europe 600 health care index <.SXDP> lost
around 0.6 percent.
India's stock market <> was down 0.7 percent after the
central bank's surprise 25-basis point rate hike on Friday,
which came after local markets had closed.
Japan's markets were closed on Monday for a holiday.
GREEK FIRE
The euro slumped to a three-week low against the dollar,
pressued by uncertainty over whether Greece would be able to
secure sufficient aid this week to deal with its deficit
problems.
"It seems there's agreement there will be some sort of
assistance to Greece, but it's not clear what form that will
take," said Carl Hammer, currency strategist at SEB in
Stockholm, adding that this would keep the euro under selling
pressure.
India's rate rise also helped prod the dollar to a two-week
high against a currency basket <.DXY> by curbing risk appetite.
The euro was at $1.3523 <EUR=>.
Yields on benchmark euro zone government debt were lower as
equities slipped. But the premium investors demand to hold Greek
government debt rather than euro zone benchmark Bunds rose to
338 basis points, its widest since March 1.
The cost of insuring Greek debt also rose to 337,500 euros
per 10 million euros of exposure from 330,100 euros at Friday's
New York close, according to prices from CMA DataVision.
(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau and Naomi Tajitsu, editing
by Mike Peacock)
