European stock markets turned in mixed performances in choppy trade yesterday as traders tracked comments regarding the eurozone debt crisis and the single currency rose against the dollar.
Markets had posted gains early in the day but fell back in the afternoon before the International Monetary Fund said it would raise $500 billion to help fight the debt crisis.
At the close, London’s FTSE 100 was 0.15 per cent higher at 5,671.10 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 slid 0.15 per cent to 3,264.93 points and Frankfurt’s DAX 30 was up by 0.34 per cent at 6,354.57 points.
Milan finished down 0.31 per cent and Madrid shed 1.34 per cent. In New York, the Dow Jones Industrials Average was 0.35 per cent stronger at 12,526.23 points in midday trading, while the broader S&P 500 Index was up by 0.48 percent at 1,299.88 points.
The Nasdaq Composite of tech stocks showed a gain of 0.79 per cent at 2,749.54 points.
The IMF’s confirmation that it aimed to bolster resources for intervening in financial crises boosted hopes that the eurozone’s chronic problems would not scupper the global economy.
Also helping US stocks were positive readings on US industrial production in December (up 0.4 per cent) and wholesale inflation (down 0.1 per cent). Meanwhile, the euro jumped to $1.2823 in London from $1.2737 in New York late Tuesday. The dollar was stable at 76.81 yen.
“A successful two year German auction, as well as a successful three month Portuguese T-bill auction, has boosted sentiment towards the single currency,” CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson commented.
Overnight, the World Bank had slashed its global economic growth forecasts and warned that rich nations’ debt problems might yet spark a crisis that would eclipse the tumult of 2008.
But Germany was set to return to growth in the first quarter of 2012 after slumping in the last three months of last year, its Economy Minister Philipp Roesler said yesterday.