European equities were down in its biggest plunge in over two years as the United States economic report did not meet the forecasts, and according to two Federal Reserve authorities, the central bank should not make any move to give protection to stock investors and Swedish regulators have issued warnings that lenders are not ready for a freeze in any of the trading markets.
Dexia SA and Societe Generale SA declined over 12% following the announcement from the Wall Street that the US regulators are moving up with their criticism of the biggest lenders of Europe. Fiat SpA was down by 12% to 7.4%. Holcim Ltd was down by 8% due to their announcement of lower than expected profits.
Stoxx Europe 600 index was down by 4.8% to 226.7 in the afternoon in London which is said to be its biggest plunge since March 2009 due to having only four stocks gained. The index has gone down by 22% from this year’s biggest jump in February despite anxiety over Europe’s failure to solve its sovereign debt problems and that the US economy will fall.
According to Henrik Drusebjerg from Nordea Bank AB, “If investors were looking for proof that we could be heading for recession, you have it here. We’ve been decreasing risk since the beginning of the year.”
Benchmark indices have fallen in all of the 18 major markets situated in the western part of Europe due to the 4.5% drop of the UK FTSE and the 5.8% drop of the German DAX. Sweden’s OMX was down as well by 6.7%
Tags: European equities, Swedish regulators, Business Finance, sovereign debt problems, Nordea Bank AB, stock investors, Benchmark indices
