Paris and Frankfurt stocks fall

File photo: Boris Roessler

File photo: Boris Roessler

Published May 5, 2014

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Paris - Stock markets in Paris and Frankfurt were undermined on Monday by worries about the possible economic impact of the worsening crisis in Ukraine.

The London market was closed for a holiday.

The markets in Tokyo, Seoul and Bangkok were also closed for public holidays.

The Paris CAC 40 index was showing a fall of 1.19 percent in early afternoon trading to 4,404.91 points, having fallen by 0.65

percent on Friday.

In Frankfurt a short time earlier the main DAX index was down 0.2 percent to 9,536.38 points.

At Barclays Bourse brokerage, portfolio manager Renaud Murail commented that “it was surprising the the markets held up as they did at the opening, given that the situation in Ukraine worsened at the weekend and does not seem to be under control.”

Weak manufacturing output data for China also undermined sentiment, traders said.

In foreign exchange trading, the euro was steady against the dollar ahead of a policy meeting by the European Central Bank on Thursday when the bank is expected to hold its key rate at 0.25

percent.

The euro was at $1.3875 from $1.3869 late on Friday, but slipped slightly to 141.45 yen from 141.78. The dollar fell against the yen to 101.95 yen from 102.19.

At Natixis bank, strategist Nordine Naam commented that despite good US unemployment data last week, “the dollar has not rallied”.

This was partly because the figures had improved largely because the size of the US workforce had shrunk.

Earlier in Asia on Monday, stock markets had ended mixed, partly in response to the weak manufacturing data for China, but also because of the tensions in Ukraine.

The Hong Kong market ended down 1.28 percent, the Sydney market was flat, in Shanghai the market edged up slightly.

Sapa-AFP

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