The European equities managed to ease their initial losses ahead of the US open on Monday.
More than halving its initial 80 point decline, the FTSE sat around 15 points shy of 5500 as the session went on. What makes the UK index’s sort of recovery more remarkable is that Brent Crude’s decline only intensified, plunging more than 8% to sink under $22.80 per barrel. As a reminder of March’s madness, as the start of the month oil was trading at around $50. At the start of the year, meanwhile, it was at $66 per barrel.
Yet Brent’s slippery slide failed to stop a sharp turnaround from BP (LON:BP) and Shell (LON:RDSa), which both swung from 3% losses to a 2.7% rise, an improvement that can in large part be pointed at for the FTSE’s overall uptick.
The FTSE 250 was still in trouble, however, with 15-19% losses for Aston Martin (LON:AML), Hammerson (LON:HMSO), Dixons Carphone (LON:DC) and Cineworld – to name just a few of the UK companies struggling on Monday – leading the index down 2.8%.
The DAX went one better than the FTSE 100, moving from an intraday low of 9370 to push past 9630 thanks to a 0.2% increase. The CAC wasn’t as lucky, though it did reduce its own losses to 0.4%.
As for the Dow Jones, the futures are currently pointing to a 0.2% drop, one that would take the index under 21600. Compare that to last Monday’s 18300-open, however, and that’s a pretty decent week-on-week rebound for the Dow, even when factoring in last Friday’s sharp fall.
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