After opening above the flat mark, the major European averages are sliding in early afternoon Monday. Crude oil for April is trading up 0.33% at $81.77 per barrel and gold is trading up $0.3 an ounce.
In Germany, industrial production rose 0.6% month-on-month in January following a revised decline of 1% in December, the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology said Monday. Economists had expected 1% increase.
The Sentix research group said today that Eurozone investor confidence unexpectedly improved in March following a decline in February. A measure for euro area investor sentiment rose to minus 7.48 in March from minus 8.23 in February. Economists were looking for a reading of minus 8.8. Improvement was observed in the expectations index, which climbed to 4.50 from February's 3.75, and the current situations index came in at minus 18.75, better than previous month's reading of minus 19.50. Sentix said Greece's debt issue weighs on Eurozone investor confidence currently.
The FTSE 100 that opened above the flat line at 5,600 and was seen sliding for most part of the session, is now firming up. The German DAX began trading at 5,892, above the unchanged mark, but some choppy trading in the first two hours dragged the index down into negative territory, but has since erased some of those losses. After opening above the flat mark at 3924, the French CAC 40 briefly entered into negative territory towards the end of the first hour, but pared some of those losses soon.
Currently, the FTSE 100 is up 0.06%, compared to the DAX gaining 0.01% and the CAC 40 adding 0.03%.
In the FTSE, travel services provider Thomas Cook is leading the pack of losers by shedding 1.95%, followed by investment bank Icap slipping 1.81%. AstraZeneca, which revealed today that its cancer drug Recentin failed to match Roche Holding AG's Avastin in a late-stage study, is losing 1.48%.
Oil and gas facilities service provider Petrofac Limited is adding 4.75%, after reporting strong earnings in 2009. Miner BHP Billiton is up 1.49% and retailer Marks & Spencer is gaining 1.38%. Royal Bank of Scotland is adding 0.33% after the Financial Times reported that the company is seeking a securities license in China to improve its mainland business.
In Germany, Deutsche Post is declining 1.61% and chemical firm K + S is down 1.35%. Steel maker Salzgitter is slipping 0.98%. The winners are being led by insurer Muenchener Rueckvers, which is gaining 1.20%, followed by truck maker man gaining 1.04%.
EADS, the maker of Airbus planes, is losing 1.34% in France, followed by LVMH, which is losing 1.25%. Water utility Veolia Environnement is down 1.21%. Banking stocks are gaining on the index with Dexia gaining 1.31%, BNP Paribas up 1.09% and Credit Agricole higher by 0.94%.
Across Asia, the major indexes closed in positive territory. Japan's Nikkei 225 closed up 2.09%, China's Shanghai Composite gained 0.73% and India's BSE Sensex ended the session 0.64% higher.
The U.S. futures are higher with the Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 futures trading in the green. Friday, the Dow advanced 1.2%, the Nasdaq closed up 1.5% and the S&P 500 rose 1.4% to end the week.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com