Monday July 30, 12:32 PM
European stocks extend losses
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LONDON (AFP) - Europe's main stock markets fell further on Monday following last week's tumble and amid takeover activity for the banking and chemicals sectors straddling London and Amsterdam.
London's FTSE 100 (news) index of leading blue-chip shares dropped 0.27 percent to 6,198.50 points nearing the half-way stage.
In Frankfurt the DAX 30 (Xetra: news) lost 0.61 percent to 7,406.13 points and the Paris CAC 40 shed 0.38 percent to 5,622.53.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of top eurozone shares slid 0.51 percent to 4,222.94 points.
The euro stood at 1.3670 dollars.
European stock markets had fallen heavily for most of last week amid concern that a weak US housing market could hurt the world economy.
The bruised US stock market slid further Friday, while on Monday, Japanese equities closed marginally higher after a defeat for the Tokyo government in weekend elections.
In London, the share price of Barclays Bank (NYSE: BCS-P - news) dropped by 1.25 percent to 673.5 pence as Dutch bank ABN Amro (Amsterdam: AABA.AS - news) withdrew its support for the British company's takeover bid.
ABN added that it was neither recommending a rival offer from a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS.L - news) (RBS).
Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) last week raised its informal bid for ABN Amro to about 67.5 billion euros (93.3 billion dollars). The RBS consortium, which also comprises the Dutch-Belgian group Fortis (Brussels: FORB.BR - news) and Banco Santander of Spain, has formally offered 71.1 billion euros.
On Monday, RBS fell 0.62 percent to 565 pence in London, while ABN Amro gained 0.29 percent in Amsterdam, whose main index was down about half a percent.
Elsewhere in the banking sector, HSBC jumped 2.39 percent to 901.5 pence, as Britain's biggest bank posted record pre-tax profits.
However earnings of 14.159 billion US dollars were overshadowed by the bank also reporting a surge in US bad debts, or loans written off, as a result of the American housing situation.
The FTSE's biggest gainer was Imperial Chemical Industries (LSE: ICI.L - news) , which surged 6.50 percent to 614.5 pence after the group announced it had rejected an improved takeover bid from Dutch rival Akzo Nobel (Amsterdam: AKZA.AS - news) worth 7.8 billion pounds.
Akzo won 0.13 percent to 60.67 euros in Amsterdam.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled 1.54 percent to close at 13,265.47 points on Friday.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite (NASDAQ: news) dropped 1.43 percent to 2,562.24 points and the broad-market Standard Poor's 500 index lost 1.60 percent to 1,458.95.
In Asia on Monday, the Tokyo Stock Exchange's benchmark Nikkei (news) -225 index of leading shares gained just a few points to close at 17,289.30.
Japanese shares had opened lower after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government suffered a heavy defeat in Sunday's elections for the upper house of parliament, raising concerns that already flagging economic reforms could stall completely.
But the market managed to stage a late rally, helped by some positive company results.
Hong Kong's key Hang Seng Index won 0.75 percent to end at 22,739.90 points.
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