The Trading session on the Old Continent ended with divergent movements of major indexes on the background of mixed economic data today. During today’s session of the European Central Bank expected left its main interest rate in the eurozone at a level of 1 percent for the eighth consecutive month in December. Its president, Jean-Claude Trichet surprised markets, however, as announced in December that the planned auction for the granting of loans to commercial banks in the euro area for a period of 1 year will be in the basic rate of 1%. Instead, the interest rate will be indexed to market interest rates in the euro area. Economic data today showed that services sector in Britain and the United States has dropped unexpectedly in November. Moreover, the gross domestic product of the euro area rose by 0.4 percent in the third quarter, but only because of the increase in government spending and exports. Shares of the largest engineering company Siemens in Europe fell by 5.2 percent to 64.08 euros on the stock exchange in Frankfurt, after the conglomerate reported its first quarterly loss for last year. Conglomerate announced that its profit has contracted by 57 percent annually for the preceding fiscal 2009
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