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Europe stocks recover after London blasts

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LONDON — European stock markets rallied yesterday, recovering from heavy losses the day before when terrorist bombs ripped through London’s transport network, killing more than 50 people.

Published: Sat 9 Jul 2005, 10:46 AM

Updated: Thu 2 Apr 2015, 4:38 PM

  • By
  • (AFP)

“I can’t help feeling that the worst is over for now,” said Tom Hougaard, chief market strategist at City Index. “We had an ugly day which will be with us forever, but the markets are intact and look defiant.”

London’s FTSE 100 recovered from an almost 200-point fall on Thursday as the market was rocked by series of terrorist attacks on the capital’s underground trains and a bus. The index of leading shares had hit a three-year high point on Wednesday after London won the 2012 Olympic Games.

The FTSE 100 rose 1.13 per cent to 5,216.40 points in early afternoon trading yesterday, after plunging by more than 3.0 per cent at one stage on Thursday before closing 1.38 per cent lower.

In Frankfurt the DAX 30 won 0.88 per cent to 4,569.90 points yesterday, in Paris the CAC 40 jumped 1.29 per cent to 4,274.99 points and the DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares climbed 1.21 per cent to 3,208.26.

The euro stood at 1.1908 dollars.

“We’re seeing a big bounce back from yesterday’s fall,” Barclays Capital analyst Hillary Cook said.

In London, the insurance, travel and tourism sectors recovered after heavy losses the day before caused by the blasts.

Insurance giant Prudential jumped 2.24 per cent to 513.5 pence, British Airways soared 2.21 per cent to 266.5 pence and hotels group Hilton rose 0.17 per cent to 288.75 per cent.

“The fact that British Airways’ share price is bouncing back today sums up the feeling that people aren’t suddenly going to stop travelling to London,” Cook added.

In Paris, the price of shares in Gaz de France soared by 18.75 per cent to 27.55 euros after being floated in a part privatisation.

This price capitalises GDF at 24.8 billion euros (29.5 billion dollars), while the flotation was the biggest on the Paris stock market since the opening of capital in France Telecom in 1997.

US stocks recouped early losses to end higher on Thursday.

After a sharply weaker opening for the main indices, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.31 per cent at 10,302.29 points and the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 0.34 per cent to 2,075.66.

The broad-market Standard and Poor’s 500 index gained 0.25 per cent to 1,197.87 points.

Asian stock markets remained calm yesterday after the deadly bombings, with investors viewing the attacks as a one-off, although most bourses ebbed on local issues or technical trading.

Japan’s benchmark Nikkei-225 index gave up early gains to close 0.21 per cent lower at 11,565.99 points. The strong overnight showing on Wall Street also impacted Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng Index closed down 0.47 per cent lower at 13,964.47 points.



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