Wednesday May 20, 12:29 PM
European stocks mixed as LSE enters new era
LONDON (AFP) - Europe's leading equity markets were mixed on Wednesday, mirroring Wall Street overnight, while the London Stock Exchange (LSE: LSE.L - news) kicked off a new era with Frenchman Xavier Rolet taking over at the top.
London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares slid 0.51 percent to 4,459.24 points in late morning trade.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 (Xetra: news) rose 0.35 percent to 4,976.54 points and in Paris the CAC 40 (Paris: news) was flat at 3,274.59 points nearing the half-way stage.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares was also virtually unchanged at 2,459.95 points.
The European single currency rose to 1.3641 dollars.
"With the US markets trading lower (on Tuesday), Asian equities closing mixed ... and financial stocks rising over 13 percent in four trading days, investors are starting to profit take on the major financial equities," said City Index market strategist Joshua Raymond.
"As a result, financials are the main sector stifling attempts to move the main European indices even higher," he said.
Particular focus was on the London Stock Exchange after it posted steep annual losses on Wednesday and began a new era with Rolet as chief executive, replacing Clara Furse, who is Dutch.
LSE's share price dropped 2.29 percent to 684 pence after Europe's biggest stock exchange said it suffered a net loss of 338 million pounds (385 million euros, 523 million dollars), hit by charges linked to its merger with Borsa Italiana.
The net loss for the year to March compared with a net profit of 168.3 million pounds the previous year.
Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei (news) -225 index gained 0.59 percent to close at 9,344.64 points despite news that Japan's economy suffered its worst contraction on record in the first quarter.
The economy shrank 4.0 percent in the three months to March compared with the previous quarter, logging an annualised drop of 15.2 percent, the Cabinet Office said.
Following the data however, the IMF said the worst of Japan's production slump appears to be over.
Wall Street drifted mainly lower on Tuesday in choppy trading after data underscored concerns over the housing sector at the centre of financial and economic turmoil.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.34 percent at 8,474.85 points a day after a strong rally. The tech-heavy Nasdaq (NASDAQ: news) rose 0.13 percent and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index dipped 0.17 percent.
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