(MENAFN Press) (EMAILWIRE.COM, February 10, 2013 ) San Francisco, CA --
The European stock markets primarily saw falling numbers midweek, while London's FTSE gained as the Royal Bank of Scotland saw its shares rise despite the bank having stated it faced large fines over the Libor rat-rigging crisis.
In foreign exchange deals, the European single currency saw a slide to 1.3535 from its previous perch at 1.3582 late in the New York trading cycle. London's FTSE 100 index rose by over a third of a percent to 6,306.06. Frankfurt's DAX was not as lucky, dropping 0.21% to 7,648.57, while Paris saw the CAC fall over a half a percentage point to 3,674.38.
Madrid's IBEX 35 dropped 0.46% lower than the day previous, while Milan's FTSEMIB index fell another 0.65%, while worries of Italy's future remain in the balance as elections loom.
"With no major economic data published today markets are lacking impulses for direction," said Anita Paluch, a trader at Gekko Global Markets. The overall focus on earnings did not yield the much hoped for boost for equities," she added.
Shares in the Royal Bank of Scotland gained 1% to 341 pence after lenders stated it expected to pay significant penalties as well as face other sanctions from the British and United States financial regulators over the company's role in the Libor rate-rigging scandal.
Reports stemming from the situation stated that the RBS would likely settle by paying both the U.S. And U.K. Authorities as much as 783 million. An announcement is expected to be made on Wednesday regarding the specifics of the issue.
That tally would be more than the Libor-related fines handed out to the British bank Barclays over the last year, but still less than the amount that the Swiss Lender UBS was slapped with.
Angus Campbel, who is head of market analysis at Capital Spreads trading group, noted that the fines were "towards the low end of expectations, so initial response from the market is positive."
