adminEuropean equities had rallied in thin trading on Tuesday, with Frankfurt and Paris closing up almost 2,0 percent each, after dealers returned to their desks from the Easter holiday weekend to digest developments over the Cyprus debt crisis.
In afternoon trade yesterday, London’s FTSE 100 index of leading companies was down 0,38 percent at 6 466,23 points.
Frankfurt’s DAX 30 dipped 0,04 percent to 7 940,30 points and in Paris the CAC 40 was off by 0,44 percent at 3 788,80.
“Yesterday’s gains came in spite of a slew of poor economic data,” said Chris Beauchamp, market analyst at IG trading group. “In a neat reversal, today we are seeing a modest pullback.”
In New York, US stocks brushed off a weak employment report and opened slightly higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average adding 0,08 percent to 14 673,46 points.
The broad-based S&P 500 edged up 0,06 percent to 1 571,24, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite increased 0.15 percent to 3 259,64.
Back in Britain, Vodafone’s share price dropped 1,04 percent to 190,00 pence after Verizon distanced itself from Press speculation regarding a potential merger with the British group.
“As Verizon has said many times, it would be a willing purchaser of the 45 percent stake that Vodafone holds in Verizon Wireless,” the US company said in a statement.
“It does not, however, currently have any intention to merge with or make an offer for Vodafone, whether alone or in conjunction with others,” Verizon said in a statement filed on Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Various media reports had said that Verizon was mulling a joint attack with AT&T that would see the pair divide up Vodafone assets.
Market focus also remained firmly on Cyprus, with the International Monetary Fund yesterday agreeing to provide approximately one billion euros to the 10-billion-euro rescue plan for the cash-strapped eurozone nation.
This would be through a three-year 891-million-euro Special Drawing Rights loan, announced IMF managing director Christine Lagarde.
The European Central Bank will, meanwhile, hold off from cutting rates or announcing any other policy moves at its meeting today so as to keep up pressure on governments to solve the eurozone’s crisis, analysts said. – AFP.
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