Europe’s main stock markets slipped yesterday amid uncertainty over a key meeting of the US Federal Reserve and despite a boost from successful bond auctions by several European states.
The benchmark FTSE 100 index in London fell 0.47 per cent to 5,576.19 points, the Paris CAC 40 inched down 0.10 per cent to 3,784.40 points and the Frankfurt Dax slipped 0.30 per cent to 6,275.98 points.
Zurich fell 0.64 per cent, Amsterdam closed 0.26 per cent lower, while Brussels was up 0.10 per cent and Madrid rose 0.18 per cent.
The Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone companies fell 0.29 per cent.
The FTSE Mib index in Milan slipped 0.06 per cent but shares in Unicredit, Italy’s top lender, plunged 2.11 per cent to €1.899 amid rumours that its chief executive officer was resigning after a row over the bank’s Libyan capital.
Energy companies were generally up, while mining stocks were down.
Mining giant Rio Tinto lost 0.94 per cent to close at 3,570 pence in London, while Cairn Energy jumped 2.27 per cent to 463.50 pence.
Bank shares were also among some of the winners of the trading day, with France’s Société Générale up 1.34 per cent at €45.02.
European stocks had been buoyed up earlier in the day after Greece, Ireland and Spain sailed through crucial debt tests by raising money on the markets and thus defying fears of another eurozone financial crisis.
But Neil MacKinnon, an analyst at financial services group VTB Capital, warned that despite the bond auctions “investor concerns over the longer-term outcome to the eurozone debt and banking crisis will likely persist”.
“Elsewhere, all eyes are on this evening’s FOMC announcement though the markets are expecting the Fed to keep policy on hold at least for now,” he added, referring to the Fed’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee.
The FOMC, seeing hints of an economic improvement, was not expected to make any significant policy shift when its top committee met yesterday but the talks were being closely watched for hints about the prevailing economic winds.
Since the committee last met in June a panel of top economists has declared that the US emerged from its worst recession since World War II in June 2009, and a host of other data has pointed to a moderately better outlook.
The Fed is expected to anchor the fragile recovery by promising to leave interest rates at historic lows and keep stimulus spending at current levels.
But with the economic picture brightening it is expected to hold off from dramatic increases in spending designed to speed up growth.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.10 per cent in afternoon trading, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq index fell 0.22 per cent.