The Lexington Group – EU Report – 14.08.2013

Aug. 15, 2013 - CHIYODA-KU, Japan -- European stocks gained for a fifth straight day with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index up 0.3% after the release of second quarter GDP data showing that Europe has emerged from a six quarter recession. Overall European gross domestic product rose 0.3% beating market expectations of 0.1% to 0.2%.

GDP growth also beat expectations in two of biggest economies in the Euro zone. In Germany GDP grew 0.7% where 0.6% was forecasted. In the first quarter in German there was flat growth. In France growth expanded by 0.5%, much higher than the forecasted 0.2%.

In the UK, the Bank of England said it would leave interest rates unchanged until the unemployment rate drops below 7%, which they do not expect to happen until 2016. But data from the UK Office for National Statistics suggests that the 7% level could be reached sooner than expected, which has worried investors.

The FTSE 100 index fell 0.4% to close at 6,587.43.

The day´s biggest gainer was Norwegian oil field services firm Subsea 7 SA, which jumped 8.5% after reporting a smaller than forecasted loss in the second quarter. The pest control and hygiene firm Rentokil Intial PLC rose 6.1% after reporting a 5.2% rise in first half of the year operating profit.

Mining firms were on the decline in the UK. Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. fell 3%, after cancelling its interim dividend due to a drop in first half of the year profits. Rio Tinto PLC fell 0.5%, Antofagasta PLC lost 0.8% and Anglo American PLC declined 0.4%.

The Lexington Group is outsourced by various financial institutions to provide supplementary analysis of financial instruments, which essentially means we primarily analyse and report to other trading houses.

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This release was published on openPR.