PSN, BDEV help gains on FTSE 250

Most European equities markets saw declines Thursday as investors remained worried about losses related to the credit crisis after Citigroup (NYSE: C; TYO: 8710) forecast that Lehman Brothers (NYSE: LEH), Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) and Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS) will have to write down as much as $6.4 billion collectively in the third quarter.

London’s markets were mixed, with the FTSE 100 down 0.03 percent to 5,370.2 while the FTSE 250 added 0.47 percent to 8,939.

The 250 was helped out by gains for some house builders as Persimmon (LSE: PSN) added 11 percent even though it reported earnings are down by 87 percent and Barratt Developments (LSE: BDEV) gained 13.75 percent on the session.

Banks and most retailers were lower, the real estate sector was mixed, and miners and the oil sector jumped, with oil and gas explorers led by Tullow Oil (LSE: TLW; OTC: TUWLY), which was up 7.82 percent.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.86 percent to 1,155.28 while the Dax was 1.28 percent lower to 6,236.96, the CAC-40 fell 4,304.61 and the IBEX dropped 1.43 percent to 11,217.4.

The building materials sector saw declines as Saint-Gobain (Euronext: SGO) was down 2.5 percent and Lafarge (Euronext: LG; NYSE: LR), the world’s second-largest cement manufacturer, dropped 2.95 percent.

Airlines and banks also saw declines, while chipmakers, utilities and the steel sector managed advances.

Asia-Pacific region equities markets also saw declines as banks were down on the expanding worries about losses related to the credit crisis.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was down 0.77 percent to 12,752.21 while the Topix index dropped 0.72 percent to 1,224.53 but the Mothers market of small and mid-caps added 0.15 percent to 452.33.

In the banking sector, Sumitomo Mitsui (TYO: 8316) was down 2.1 percent after HSBC (LSE: HSBA; NYSE: HBC; Euronext: HSBC; SEHK: 005) cut its recommendation from “overweight” to “underweight”, while comsumer lender Orix (TYO: 8591) dropped 2.9 percent.

Shares related to oil saw gains, however, with Inpex (TYO: 1605) up 2.7 percent and trader Sojitz Corp (TYO: 2768) gaining 4.5 percent after Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) forecast that crude oil prices will return to record levels.

In Australia, the Sydney Ordinaries were 0.96 percent lower to 4,949.6 while the S&P/ASX200 dropped 1.1 percent to 4,872.2 as asset manager Babcock and Brown Ltd (ASX: BNB) fell 36 percent.

Elsewhere in the region, the Straits Times Index was down 1.39 percent to 2,713.47 while the Taiex fell 1.74 percent to 6,918.48 in Taiwan, the Kospi dropped 1.83 percent to 1,512, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was 2.58 percent lower to 10,392.06, the Sensex was down 2.96 percent to 14,243.73 and the Shanghai Composite dropped 3.63 percent to 2,431.72.

New York markets were lower in early afternoon trade as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.31 percent to 11,382.26 at around 1 p.m. while the Nasdaq Composite was 0.86 percent lower to 2,368.44 and the S&P 500 had dropped 0.17 percent to 1,272.35.

The declines came on concerns about the writedowns predicted for several banks by Citigroup and on gains in oil prices as trading volumes remained low.

Energy companies benefited from the higher oil prices as Exxon Mobil (NYSE: XOM) added 2.1 percent, Chevron (NYSE: CVX) was up 2.2 percent, and coal producer Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU) gained 5.7 percent, while airlines and carmakers were hurt by the rise in crude oil prices.

Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) dropped 6 percent on its report that profits fell 15 percent in its fiscal second quarter, with the bookseller blaming the losses on slow spending by consumers.

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