Renewed concern over Greece and weak results at companies such as Siemens and Philips halted a winning run on European stock markets yesterday. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index, which had risen for the past eight sessions, retreated 1 percent to 1,473.54 points going into the close of the trading day. The eurozone 's blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 index also declined 1.4 percent after a similar eight-day winning streak. Those gains were ignited by the European Central Bank's plans to buy government bonds to spur growth in the struggling eurozone economy.Greek shares underperformed for the second day in a row. The benchmark Athens ATG equity index fell 4.7 percent and Greece's borrowing costs rose. Investors were worried Greece's new anti-bailout government would clash with the European Union over the terms of Greek's bailout. Syriza, the party that won Greece's election on Sunday, opposes those terms. Greek banks slid to a record low. Bank of Piraeus and Alpha Bank lost around a fifth of their stock market value. National Bank of Greece fell 14.2 percent. Fears that investors could move deposits out of Greek banks hit the sector. "I'm staying away from the financials and the banks at the moment, because they're in the firing line from any fallout from Greece," said Mirabaud Securities' European equity sales executive Rupert Baker.Some weak updates from leading companies also weighed on European equities. Siemens fell 2.4 percent after the German company said quarterly profit from its industrial units fell 4 percent. Dutch healthcare and lighting company Philips slid 5.2 percent after Philips cut its 2016 sales and earnings estimates. However, Zurich's SMI equity index rose 0.6 percent after the Swiss franc sank below levels last seen when authorities removed a cap on the franc's value against the euro earlier this month. Traders speculated the Swiss National Bank was intervening on Tuesday to weaken the currency. Gary Paulin, co-founder of equity brokerage Aviate Global, backing buying European shares, partly due to the support for the stock market arising from the ECB's government bond-buying programme. Clairinvest fund manager Ion-Marc Valahu was more cautious. "I am now using rallies to reduce equity exposure," he said.