LONDON: European stock markets diverged yesterday. London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index fell 0.68 percent to 6,731.43 points, but Frankfurt’s DAX 30 rose 0.26 percent to 9,033.92 points and the CAC 40 in Paris climbed 0.60 percent to 4,299.89 points. Madrid’s main stocks index advanced by 1.32 percent and Milan by 0.96 percent.
The yield on Spanish 10-year bonds fell below 4.0 percent for the second time this year, to a low point on the day of 3.978 percent from 4.063 percent late on Wednesday.
In foreign exchange trading, the euro fell to $1.3588 from $1.3735 late in New York on Wednesday. But the dollar fell to 98.30 yen from 98.50. The British pound rose to ¤1.1809 and $1.6043.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold slipped to $1,324 an ounce from $1,354.75 on Wednesday. Switzerland’s central bank said yesterday that it had lost billions of dollars during the first nine months of the year amid a sharp drop in gold prices.
US stocks wobbled, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.6 percent to 15,609.10 points in midday trading. The broad-based S&P 500 was flat at 1,763.30, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.13 percent to 3,935.73 points.
AFP
