* Greece, India, health care worries hit stocks
* Wall Street set to open lower
* 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 fell 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.
Wall Street looked set for a weak start, with eyes on
pharmaceutical stocks following the U.S. House of
Representatives' final approval to a sweeping healthcare
overhaul. []
MSCI's all-country world stocks index <.MIWD00000PUS> was
down around half a percent, with the emerging markets sub-index
<.MSCIEF> down 1.1 percent.
The falls took this year's gains for emerging market stocks
-- widely considered the best bet for returns by many investors
-- into the red.
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 1.1
percent. The STOXX Europe 600 health care index <.SXDP> lost
around 0.6 percent.
India's stock market <> closed down nearly 1 percent
after the central bank's surprise 25-basis point rate hike on
Friday, which came after local markets had closed. The hike
helped weaken commodity stocks elsewhere.
Japan's markets were closed on Monday for a holiday.
GREEK FIRE
The euro slumped to a three-week low against the dollar,
pressured 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.
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The euro zone crisis in graphics: http://r.reuters.com/fyw72j
Background graphic on Greek numbers: http://r.reuters.com/wax34j
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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 $1.3512 <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
its widest since March 1. The cost of insuring Greek debt also
rose.
Germany became a magnet for investors seeking safer haven
assets, with peripheral sovereign bond spreads widening against
Bunds and German paper outperforming U.S. Treasuries. The
10-year U.S. T-note yield spread over Bunds scaled 60 basis
points -- its widest since June 2007. []
(Additional reporting by Dominic Lau and Naomi Tajitsu;
Editing by Toby Chopra)
