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Europe close: Bourses fall back
Wed, 08 Feb, 2012
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Europe close: Bourses fall back
Wed, 25 Aug 2010, 16:27:00
Europe's main markets closed lower on Wednesday after Standard & Poor's cut eurozone minnow Ireland's credit rating, heightening fears over the sustainability of the global economic recovery. S&P lowered its credit rating on Ireland to AA-, saying that the country's budget deficit will continue growing as the government bails out the banking sector. The bill for bailing out Ireland's banks could reach €50bn (£41), S&P now says, having previously put the high end of its estimate at €35bn. Ireland's National Treasury Management Agency said that the figure of €50bn was an 'extreme estimate.' Across the markets, the Dax in Frankfurt closed 35 points lower at 5,899, while the Cac in Paris dropped 40 points to 3,450. The Swiss market finished 45 lower at 6,098. Dutch beer giant <b>Heineken</b> cheered a 42% rise in first-half net profit to €695m, helped by positive exceptional items. However, beer volume dropped 2.3% organically due to the weak economic environment and the effect of excise duty increases, partly offset by strong growth in Africa, Asia and Latin America. A senior executive at the Spanish bank <b>Banco Santander</b> has been charged with illegally trading in derivatives of PotashCorp ahead of a bid by the mining giant BHP Billiton for the fertiliser maker. Juan Garcia, head of Santander's European equity derivatives research division, is accused by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of buying financial derivatives that pay out if PotashCorp's shares rise ahead of its announcement on August 17 that BHP was interested in bidding for the fertiliser maker. Meanwhile, <b>BHP Billiton</b> has released numbers that show underlying EBITDA rose 10% to $24.5bn in the year to 30 June, and attributable profit before exceptional items up 16% to $12.5bn. <b>Tullow </b>is cheaper after investors took the opportunity to bank some profits on the occasion of the Irish oil firm's interim results. Higher commodity prices gave Tullow Oil a boost in the first half of 2010, propelling profits up almost three times, in line with expectations. Profit after tax leapt to $89m from $31m in 2009 on sales up 11% to $486m. On the economic front, the Ifo business climate index for Germany rose to 106.7 in August, up from 106.2 in July. Economists had expected a drop to 106.0.
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