Greece in Focus; Euro Weakens

Mayank Mehta
22 Mar, 2010
New York City

European leaders are increasingly divided to offer financial assistance to Greece. Greece has

[R]7:00 PM Frankfurt, Paris; 1:00 PM New York – European leaders are increasingly divided to offer financial assistance to Greece. Greece has €20 billion debt due in the next two months and may have to turn to the IMF. The euro declined against the dollar and the pound.[/R]

European sock trading was weak after leaders of nations appear divided to offer assistance to Greece. The euro declined against the dollar and the pound. Investors also focused on the cautious comments from the IMF regarding the need to wind down stimulus and lower government deficits at wealthy nations.

In London FTSE 100 Index closed lower 11.54 or 0.20% to 5,638.58, in Paris CAC 40 Index decreased 5.90 or 0.15% to close at 3,919.54, in Frankfurt DAX index lower 6.15 or 0.10% to close at 5,976.28. In Zurich trading SMI decreased 25.04 or 0.36% to close at 6,855.72.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an interview with Deutschlandfunk said that this week’s summit is not likely to discuss Greek financial assistance and European leaders must not create an impression for any Greek aid.

Merkel remarks were delivered after Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and EC President Jose Barroso stressed that EU leaders should provide more details of the Greek bailout at the summit this week in Brussels.

Increasingly Greece is likely to turn to the International Monetary Fund despite comments from the French President Nicholas Sarkozy suggesting that Europe can resolve its own problems.

One euro fetched $1.3484 and one dollar traded at 90.08 yen. The British pound was nearly unchanged at $1.5012.

Gainers & Losers

ArcelorMittal declined 1.9% to €30.50 after the company removed the stock from its “conviction buy” at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Eurazeo SA decreased 0.4% to €52.85 an investment company said 2009 revenues fell 0.6% to €3.79 billion from €4.05 billion a year ago. Net loss or the year was €199.3 million compared to net loss of €68.0 million a year ago.

Henkel AG & Co rose 1.0% to €38.49.

Metro AG rose 0.5% to €42.19 after the financial investors are interested in acquiring department store chain Kaufhof and Arcandor''s Karstadt and merge them according to several media reports in Germany.

Muehlbauer Holding AG & Co. KGaA increased 7.0% to €21.00 after the company received an order for national ID project.

REpower Systems AG added 2.0% to €127.70 after the company was upgraded to “overweight” from “neutral” at HSBC Holdings Plc.

Porsche Automobil Holding SE fell 0.7% to €43.65.

Sanofi-Aventis SA the pharmaceutical group dropped 2.1% to €55.35.

Terreis SA the property-investment company surged 5.0% to €11.22.

Valeo SA gained 2.6% to €26.01 after the car-parts maker was upgraded to “buy” from “hold” by Deutsche Bank.

DAX Index Movers

Commerzbank AG led the decliners in the DAX index of 1.44%, followed by ThyssenKrupp AG of 1.34%, in K+S AG of 1.28%, in Deutsche Post AG of 1.23%, and in Allianz SE of 0.98%.

Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA led gainers in the DAX index with a rise of 2.61%, followed by increase in Henkel AG of 1.50%, in BMW AG of 1.34%, in SAP AG of 1.17%, and inVolkswagen AG of 1.03%.

CAC-40 Index Movers

PPR SA led the decliners in the CAC-40 index of 1.44%, followed by Renault SA of 1.07%, in Accor SA of 0.89%, in Veolia Environnement of 0.84% and in ArcelorMittal of 0.84%.

Vallourec SA gainers in the CAC-40 index with a rise of 1.39%.followed by increase in Electricite de Strasbourg SA of 1.22%, in EADS NV of 1.15%, in Societe Generale SA of 1.11% and in STMicroelectronics N.V. of 1.09%.