European Equity Market Update

European equities are trading down this afternoon after reaching a five month high. The STOXX Europe 600 Price Index is trading down 0.45 percent. The worst performer of the major indices is the IBEX 35 which has lost 1.6 percent today. The Eurozone CPI Estimate (YoY) came in as expected for December at 2.8 percent, slightly higher than the November figure of 3.0 percent. European banks also deposited more with the ECB than at any time since the introduction of the Euro in 1999, from EUR 446bln to EUR 453.2bln, according to a Bloomberg report.

Volumes are again higher for a second day in Europe, 15 percent higher than the 20 day average but still 15 percent lower than the 100 day average as there is a long way to go until we are back up to normal levels.
All sectors are down except for Energy, trading up 0.46 percent thanks to the higher oil price. Banks are leading the fall trading down 1.5 percent.

EDF is down 4.6 percent after it said it expected to spend around EUR 10bn to implement the recommendations of the French nuclear safety watchdog following Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster. Unicredit is trading down 11 percent following the rights issue announcement and Vestas is trading down 16.7 percent following the change in the EBIT guidance reported this morning.