The Drop of European Indexes

Viliyana Filipova — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:00:28 +0000

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
Pan-European index Dow Jones Stoxx 600 lost 0.2 percent to 246.33 points at the end of today’s session. Since the beginning of this year stock measure, which covers the securities markets in 18 European countries rose by 24 percent, according to Bloomberg. Extractive companies have contributed most to the reduction of today’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 after their strong rally over the past few days. According to analysts of French bank Societe Generale, Dow Jones Stoxx 600 may end next year at a level of 280 points. News that Bank of America will pay the U.S. government the sum of 45 billion dollars and encourage market participants to support the banking sector shares. National benchmarks fell in 10 of the 18 securities markets, which Dow Jones Stoxx 600 traces. In Germany, the DAX slid 0.2 percent to 5 70.4 points, Britain’s FTSE 100 was down by 0.3% to 5 313 points while France’s CAC 40 added 0.1 percent to a minimum 3799.1 points. Greek Athex Composite fell the most, having lost 2.7 percent to 2 366.9 points.

Financial Communique » Societe Generale

The Drop of European Indexes