LONDON: Europe’s main stock markets closed in the green yesterday in cautious deals before the outcome of the US Federal Reserve’s latest monetary policy meeting, dealers said.
London’s FTSE 100 index of top blue-chip companies ended the session 0.76 percent higher at 6,621.06 points.
Frankfurt’s DAX 30 added a slight 0.06 percent to finish at 8,275.97 points, while the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.15 percent to 3,992.69 points.
Despite the gains in London, Barclays closed down 1.17 percent to 287.9 pence as investors continued to react to news of a vast £12.8-billion hole in the British bank’s balance sheet. Barclays has a market capitalisation of around £35.48bn. The stock had already plunged by 5.74 percent on Tuesday.
In foreign exchange activity, the euro rose to $1.3269 from $1.3261 in New York late on Tuesday.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold fell back to $1,314.50 an ounce from $1,324.15 on Tuesday.
Asian markets mostly fell in the final hours before investors discover the Fed’s plans for its massive stimulus programme.
Markets digested a raft of economic data in Europe. Unemployment held at record highs in the 17-nation eurozone in June but there was some hope of an improvement as the numbers of those out of work fell slightly, official data showed. The overall eurozone jobless rate came in at 12.1 percent, unchanged from May, the Eurostat data agency said.
On a more upbeat note, the number of unemployed people fell by 24,000 to 19.26 million, according to Eurostat.
In company news, shares in France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen surged and ended the day up 6.7 percent at ¤9.60 on results showing an almost halving of losses in the first six months. Shares in French group Schneider rose 3.1 percent to close at 59.81 after announcing an agreed bid worth £3.4bn to buy British electrical engineering firm Insensys.
Banking giant BNP Paribas saw its stocks lift 1.64 percent to 48.63 euros after a better-than-expected earnings report. Aerospace group EADS reported strong overall figures for the first half and a name change to Airbus. Its shares rose by 1.4 percent to ¤44.88.
In Asia, Tokyo closed down 1.45 percent on profit-taking after the previous day’s gains. Seoul lost 0.16 percent and Hong Kong fell 0.32 percent, while Shanghai rose 0.19 percent in value.
On Wall Street, US stocks were also higher. In midday trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.44 percent, the broad-based S&P 500 added 0.47 percent, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index increased 0.41 percent.
Today investors will digest interest rate decisions from both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.
AFP
