27 September, 2008

It has been reported that Equities markets in Europe faces downfall this Friday due to postpones in the approval of the US bailout plan and by the collapse of US savings and loan Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM), which was detained by government regulators and sold to JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM; TYO: 8634) for $1.9 billion.

In London, the FTSE 100 dropped 2.09 percent to 5,088.47 while the FTSE 250 was 1.9 percent lower to 8,274.44.

Insurers were at down on broker downgrades as Aviva (LSE: AV) dropped 3.4 percent on a Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER; TYO: 8675) downgrade from “buy to “neutral” while Old Mutual decreased 9.7 percent, the worst performance of the day on the 100, after Merrill Lynch cut its rating from “neutral” to “under perform”.

The Eurofirst 300 declined 1.83 percent to 1,104.79 while the IBEX was 0.44 percent lower to 11,387.9, the CAC-40 fell 1.5 percent to 4,163.38 and the Dax was down 1.77 percent to 6,063.5.

However, Asia-Pacific region equities markets faces downfall as well.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 declined 0.94 percent to 11,893.16 while the Topix index was down 0.53 percent to 1,147.89 and the Mothers market was 1.93 percent lower to 427.27. Whereas, some banks managed small rises.

Elsewhere in the region, the Shanghai Composite dropped 0.16 percent to 2,293.78 while in Australia the S&P/ASX200 fell 0.46 percent to 4,904.8 and the Sydney Ordinaries decreased 0.53 percent to 4,934.6.

The Hang Seng declined 1.33 percent to 18,682.09, the Straits Times Index dropped 1.34 percent to 2,411.46, the Kospi fell 1.68 percent to 1,476.33, the Taiex was 2.16 percent lower to 5,929.63 and the Sensex decreased 3.28 percent to 13,102.18.

In afternoon trade in New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.31 percent to 11,056.07 after JPMorgan Chase increased $10 billion in a stock sale and on the assertion by legislators that they would agreed upon bailout plan, but the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.62 percent to 2,173.03 and the S&P was down 0.33 percent to 1,205.19.

Crude oil prices were turned down, while metals were mixed and grains prices were declined.

The yen was at top as discussions over the bail out plan between US legislators condensed the status of procuring higher-yielding currencies financed with the lower-yielding yen.