Major European bourses recover from three-day losing run

EACH of the major European markets showed signs of recovery yesterday following a three-day losing streak.

Better-than-expected economic news from the US and signs that Europe’s policymakers will not let Greece’s woes derail the rest of the eurozone, calmed investors somewhat — with the continent’s three main bourses; the FTSE-100 in London, the DAX in Frankfurt and the CAC-40 in Paris — all up by between 1% and 2.25%.

Frankfurt was the biggest climber, up by nearly 2.3%. In all, eleven of the 18 national benchmark indexes across western Europe were up in the latest trading session.

In Dublin, the ISEQ — which fell by over 4% on Tuesday — was back up too, but only barely, by less than two points, or 0.07%.

Its good performers were the likes of recruitment specialist CPL Resources, food groups Kerry and Aryzta, healthcare services company ICON and building supplies providers Kingspan and CRH; while the likes of biotech company Elan and support services giant DCC were the notable fallers.

Following news that Greece will put its latest bailout proposal to a referendum and ahead of a crunch meeting between its leaders and those of France and Germany, French president Nicolas Sarkozy said the “only way to resolve Greek debt problems” is through the deal hammered out last week during a six-day crisis-management marathon.

In midday trading, the main US exchanges were generally up by around 1%, buoyed by the Federal Reserve upping its confidence regarding the American economy and saying that, while “significant downside risks” remain, it will refrain from taking more quantitative easing action for the time being.

There was also positive jobs data from the US yesterday, with companies hiring more staff than was initially forecast last month.

They took on 110,000 people in October; 10,000 more than was forecast by analysts.