In a turn up for the books, a rather rough European open turned into a decent-sized rebound on Thursday, with the FTSE the one major exception.
While the UK index might be trailing its eurozone peers quite significantly, it has managed to recover its initial losses, lifting from its 6900-grazing 7 month lows to sit just above 6960. The FTSE was in part pegged back by some heavy losses from AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline, down 4.5% and 1.7%, alongside the refusal of BP (LON:BP) and Shell (LON:RDSa) to get involved in the wider commodity sector gains. That cable nudged up by 0.2% – admittedly barely taking the tip off the pound’s recent losses – likely didn’t help either.
In contrast, the Eurozone appeared to regain some confidence, ironically despite an unexpected drop in the latest German Ifo business climate reading. It appears that Italy, one of the key reasons why the region’s indices have struggled in October, is maybe responsible for Thursday’s gains, following reports that the country’s government is prepared to help out its banks struggling with rising bond yields. This sent the FTSE MIB 1.6% higher, with the CAC up 1.3% and the DAX jumping 0.5%.
Turning to this afternoon and the Dow Jones, which took another sharp tumble on Wednesday, is set to claw back 200 or so points, an increase that would just about put the index above 24800.
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