By Adam Haigh
June 2 (Bloomberg) -- European stocks fluctuated after rising to the highest level since November as gains by automakers offset concern a three-month rally has outpaced the expectations for earnings and economic growth.
Barclays Plc sank 14 percent after the bank’s Abu Dhabi investors said they will sell 4.12 billion pounds ($6.8 billion) of shares in the U.K. lender. Ryanair Holdings Plc, Europe’s largest discount carrier, slid 3.6 percent after reporting its first annual loss. Volkswagen AG led European carmakers higher after Porsche SE said its aim to integrate with the company is “the best industrial solution for all sides.”
The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index slipped 0.1 percent to 214.05 at 11:25 a.m. in London, having swung between gains and losses at least six times. The regional gauge yesterday climbed to 25.4 times the earnings of its companies, the highest since March 2004, amid optimism that the $12.8 trillion pledged by the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve will help to end the first global recession since World War II.
“Markets are taking any bullish or less negative data and just extrapolating that,” said Gregor Smith, a London-based fund manager at Daiwa Asset Management, who helps oversee $1 billion. “The recovery could be long and slow.”
Europe’s unemployment rate rose to the highest in almost 10 years in April, the European Union statistics office in Luxembourg said today. Unemployment in the 16-member euro region increased to 9.2 percent from 8.9 percent in March, the highest since September 1999.
Asia Stocks
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 0.3 percent as U.S. reports on personal income, manufacturing and construction added to evidence the worst of the economic contraction is over.
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures fluctuated between gains and losses after the benchmark index for U.S. equities closed at a seven-month high yesterday.
Barclays slumped 14 percent to 271 pence. PCP Gulf Invest 1 Ltd., owned by the Abu Dhabi-based International Petroleum Investment Company, said it hired Credit Suisse Group AG to sell mandatory convertible notes. The notes amount to 1.3 billion shares, Barclays said.
Piraeus Bank SA, Greece’s fourth-biggest lender, lost 4.9 percent to 8.08 euros after selling a 3.95 percent stake to investors for 102 million euros ($144 million). Piraeus sold about 13.3 million treasury shares at 7.7 euros each.
JPMorgan, American Express
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and American Express Co., told by regulators last month they don’t need fresh capital, will raise $5.5 billion after the Federal Reserve said any firm seeking to repay the U.S. rescue funds must first tap equity markets. JPMorgan and American Express were little changed in Germany.
Ryanair decreased 3.6 percent to 3.50 euros after reporting a net loss of 169 million euros in the year ended March 31. That was wider than the 70 million-euro median estimate by seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Volkswagen surged 10 percent to 253.13 euros, leading a gauge of automakers on the Stoxx 600 3.7 percent higher.
Porsche, which holds a majority stake in Volkswagen, said it knows its obligations toward Europe’s largest carmaker and will fulfill them. Porsche said it has secured 10 billion euros of a 12.5 billion-euro credit line that it’s seeking from banks.
Kingfisher Plc climbed 5.3 percent to 193.6 pence. Europe’s largest home-improvement retailer reported first-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates after warmer weather and store refurbishments spurred sales at its U.K. B&Q chain.
The number of Americans signing contracts to purchase previously owned homes may have risen in April for the fourth time in five months as lower prices attracted buyers, economists said before a report from the National Association of Realtors at 10 a.m. in Washington. Estimates in the Bloomberg survey ranged from a 2 percent drop to a 4 percent gain.
To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Haigh in London at ahaigh1@bloomberg.net
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment