European equities mixed, London close to recession

European stock markets mostly slid yesterday as investors digested news that Britain was dangerously close to recession and tracked ongoing woes over the eurozone debt crisis.

London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares dropped 0.50 per cent to 5,723.00 points and in Paris the CAC-40 index fell by 0.31 per cent to 3,312.48 points.

However, in Frankfurt the DAX 30 bucked the trend to end the day up 0.04 per cent at 6,421.85 points, boosted by a rise in business confidence for the third month in a row. Milan slid by 0.56 per cent and Madrid slipped 0.42 per cent.

The European single currency dipped to $1.2975 from $1.3030 late in New York on Tuesday.

“We saw (London) stocks fall off in reaction to the worse-than-expected GDP reading,” said City Index analyst Joshua Raymond.

“The lack of significant market reaction is likely to be down to the fact that today’s data will have been of no real surprise to most investors.”

In afternoon trading on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had given up 0.35 per cent to 12,631.85 points, while the broad-based S&P 500 shed 0.13 per cent to 1,312.99 points.

However, the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.60 per cent to 2,803.35 points, lifted by Apple’s report of record breaking earnings.

Tokyo and Sydney closed up 1.12 per cent and Seoul gained 0.12 per cent. Financial markets in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei were closed for a public holiday.