Europe’s main stock markets mostly rose on Monday, shrugging off a plunge in Athens as Greek trading resumed after a five-week hiatus.
But London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index dipped 0.10 percent to stand at 6,689.16 points in late morning deals, with its heavyweight oil and mining sectors hit by more disappointing Chinese data, traders said.
Frankfurt’s DAX 30 meanwhile climbed 0.40 percent to 11,353.91 points and in Paris the CAC 40 rose 0.28 percent to 5,097.06 compared with Friday’s close.
In foreign exchange, the euro eased to $ 1.0976 from $ 1.0984 late in New York on Friday.
Greece’s stock exchange reopened Monday with a drop of more than 22 percent after a five-week shutdown imposed by the country’s debt crisis and capital controls.
In later afternoon deals, the ATHEX stood down 17 percent at 661.30 points compared with its June 26 close.
“The fear had been that after five weeks of forced closure, carnage on the reopen was likely, and that fear appears to have been confirmed,” said from Rebecca O’Keeffe, head of investment at stockbroker Interactive Investor.
“There are also increasing concerns that the Athens authorities are ill-prepared for such extreme moves in share prices.”
The country’s main banks took a heavy blow at the opening with drops of around 30 percent.
In London, shares in HSBC were up 0.48 percent to 582.50 pence after the British banking giant announced the sale of its Brazil business. HSBC also posted a drop in quarterly net profits.
Mining group Glencore (Xetra: A1JAGV – news) led the losers’ board, shedding 2.60 percent to 202.60 pence, followed closely behind by peer Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L – news) — down 2.19 percent at 793.40 pence.
“Greece and China are back at the top of the news agenda, with the latter hitting UK mining stocks hard,” said Chris Beauchamp, senior market analyst at IG (LSE: IGG.L – news) trading group.
“Having seen a modest bounce last week the mining sector has taken a distinct turn for the worse today, with big names under heavy pressure,” he added.
Elsewhere, shares in Nokia (Swiss: 472672.SW – news) were down 1.0 percent at 6.37 euros after the Finnish telecoms company said it was selling its mapping service Here to German car makers BMW (Swiss: BMW.SW – news) , Audi (Other OTC: AUDVF – news) and Mercedes (Xetra: 710000 – news) -Benz for 2.8 billion euros ($ 3.0 billion).
Asian stock markets mostly fell Monday following the disappointing Chinese manufacturing figures and a drop on Wall Street ahead of the weekend.
The survey of Chinese manufacturing activity showed a drop to a two-year low in July, suggesting the world’s second largest economy faces challenges in the third quarter.
Wall Street closed lower on Friday following poor earnings from energy groups ExxonMobil and Chevron (Swiss: CVX.SW – news) and a fall in oil prices, traders said.
