Europe's main stock markets ended mostly weaker this evening, a day after a global rally sparked by optimism about economic recovery after better than expected US company results.
London's FTSE closed down 0.6% at 5,223, led by mining shares, though Sainsbury surged 10% to 342.5p on talk that Qatar's sovereign wealth fund was planning a renewed offer for the British grocer after a previous bid attempt failed in 2007. While Paris ended marginally higher at 3,888, e Frankfurt lost 0.4% to 5,831.
In Dublin, the ISEQ ended four points (0.1%) lower at 3,319, with two big banks losing ground. AIB closed down 3.5% at €2.76, while Bank of Ireland fell 3.2% to €2.75. But food group Kerry gained 2.6% to €20, while Irish Continental jumped 5.7% to €12.90.
Om Wall Street, markets paused after Wednesday's rally despite positive economic data and better than expected results from Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. The Dow Jones was down 0.2% at 9,998, while the Nasdaq lost 0.4% to 2,163.
In Asia this morning, Tokyo's Nikkei-225 index gained 1.8% to end at 10,239 after Wednesday's bumper US gains. The Hang Seng climbed 0.5% to 21,999.
