LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Stocks in Europe edged slightly lower Monday, as more details of a potential backstop for Greece helped banks rise, while the media and metals sector lost ground.
fter ending higher for the sixth straight week, the Stoxx Europe 600(ST:SXXP 268.99, -0.75, -0.28%) slipped 0.1% to 269.43, with media and resource sectors lower.
Europe stocks had gained on Friday on anticipation of a Greek rescue plan.
Publisher Wolters Kluwer(NL:WKL 15.85, -0.22, -1.37%) lost 1.5% on the Euronext Amsterdam on a Morgan Stanley downgrade, and miner Xstrata(UK:XTA 1,281, -19.00, -1.46%) fell over 1% on the London Stock Exchange.
Markets were having their first chance to react to Sunday's news that euro-zone nations were willing to lend Greece 30 billion euros, with the countries also detailing what rate they will charge. Greece has not yet asked for the aid to be delivered amid hopes they will be able to return to the bond market. See story.
"The announcement of the aid mechanism is a rather positive development, as first of all it lifted the uncertainty over its form and as the loans offered are at a significantly lower rate than of the current market ones," said analysts at Proton Bank in Athens.
Credit-default swaps on Greece fell sharply and the euro(CUR_EURUSD 1.3583, -0.0042, -0.3083%) climbed 0.8% to $1.3608, and Greek banks shot higher, with EFG Eurobank Ergasias up 11% and Piraeus Bank up 10.7%. See story.
The U.K. FTSE 100(UK:UKX 5,762, -8.59, -0.15%) slipped 0.1% to 5,768.09, the German DAX(DX:DAX 6,234, -16.02, -0.26%) fell marginally to 6,248.07 and the French CAC 40(FR:PX1 4,050, -0.39, -0.01%) fell 0.1% to 4,047.13.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 9 points.
In Warsaw, the WIG 20(XX:??? 2,554, +31.22, +1.24%) rose 0.5% to 2,566.68 and the zloty gained in the aftermath of Poland's president and numerous other senior officials, including the head of the central bank, getting killed in a plane crash in Russia over the weekend. See Poland story.
Swiss bank UBS(CH:UBSN 18.25, +0.57, +3.22%)(UBS 17.24, +0.72, +4.36%) rose 4.1% as it said it expects to swing to a first-quarter pretax profit of at least 2.5 billion Swiss francs ($2.4 billion), compared to a loss of around 1.5 billion francs a year earlier. UBS estimated outflows in its main wealth management and Swiss banking unit were around 8 billion francs, compared to 33.2 billion francs in the fourth quarter. See UBS story.
Shares of Home Retail (UK:HOME 293.60, +14.60, +5.21%) rose 5.2% to 295 pence a share after a report in The Mail on Sunday that Wal-Mart Stores' held Asda is looking for acquisitions in the U.K. Read more in London Markets.
While saying that she had "no idea" whether Asda would mount a bid, Kate Calvert of Shore Capital said Home Retail's Argos unit would fit nicely with the Wal-Mart unit's desire to increase non-food sales.
"They have the infrastructure, and they have made it work in smaller formats where Asda has struggled," she said. She said Home Retail could be valued at 370 pence a share on a leveraged buyout model without squeezing much out of the business.
ARM Holdings (UK:ARM 238.60, -5.20, -2.13%) (ARMH 11.00, -0.27, -2.40%) fell 2% as Citi cut the U.K. microchip designer to sell from hold, saying it trades at 32 times consensus 12-month forward earnings -- a 70% premium to global semiconductor peers. "While the resilience of ARM's business model through the downturn and leverage potential through the upturn argue for a premium, valuation has now run ahead of fundamentals, in our view," the broker said.
StockSource.us
ABOUT US:
Stock Source is a full service investor relations firm dedicated to growth stocks. We seek out innovative, emerging companies poised for growth and tell their stories to qualified, aggressive investors looking for ground floor opportunities.
We connect investors with investment prospects—cutting through the noise and churn of Wall Street to shine the spotlight on companies on their way up. These companies trade on the Nasdaq, Amex, OTCBB, and Pinksheets.
No comments:
Post a Comment