BP adds nearly 4 percent on session

European equities markets were mostly higher Friday as optimism increased a bit on better earnings outlooks and news on sales.

In London the FTSE 100 was 1.53 percent higher to 4,232.97 but the FTSE 250 dropped 0.47 percent to 6,127.76.

The oil sector was higher as oil prices climbed but pared gains as oil prices fell later in the session, with BP (LSE: BP; NYSE: BP; TYO: 5051) adding 3.61 percent as Royal Dutch Shell’s (LSE: RDSA, RDSB; NYSE: RDS.A, RDS.B) A shares were up 1.92 percent and its B shares gained 3.82 percent.

Miners were mixed, with precious metals miners doing the best.

Aquarius Platinum (LSE: AQP; JSE: AQP; ASX: AQP) was up 7.14 percent while Randgold (LSE: RRS; NAS: GOLD) added 8.81 percent and Anglo American (LSE: AAL), which mines both precious and base metals, gained 3.45 percent, but Vedanta Resources (LSE: VED) dropped 8 percent for the worst performance on the 100 on the session.

Hedge fund Man Group (LSE: EMG) had the best day on the 100 as it added 7.67 percent.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.96 percent to 860.76 while the CAC-40 added 0.67 percent to 3,291.47, the IBEX was 1.05 percent higher to 8,832.2 and the Dax gained 1.31 percent to 4,710.24.

Aerospace group EADS (Euronext: EAD; FWB: EAD) added 3.66 percent on the CAC-40 on an improved earnings forecast, while builder Vinci (Euronext: DG) was up 4.14 percent on the news that its sales were up by 10 percent in the third quarter.

Utilities were up in the region, but automakers and the retail sector saw declines.

Most equities markets in the Asia-Pacific region were up Friday as commodities related shares saw gains on higher prices for oil and metals.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 2.72 percent to 8,462.39 and the Topix index was up 1.12 percent to 846.91 but the Mothers market of small and mid-caps dropped 1.15 percent to 323.64.

Despite the gains on the session, the Nikkei ended the week down 1.4 percent and the Topix was 3.7 percent lower over the full week.

Another property developer declared bankruptcy in Japan, bringing the total number of developers to go bankrupt in Japan this year to 21.

The news that it had filed for bankruptcy sent shares in Dix Kuroki Co. (TYO: 8884) down 37 percent, while another developer, Azel Corp. (TYO: 1872), ended the session unchanged but had been as much as 11 percent lower during the session.

Meanwhile, in China, property developers saw gains after banks there took steps to make mortgage approvals easier, helping the Shanghai Composite to one of the biggest gains of the day as it added 3.05 percent.

Other gainers in the region included the Straits Times Index with a gain of 0.21 percent to 1,759.14 and the Taiex added 0.34 percent to 4,452.7 while in Australia the S&P/ASX200 was up 1.37 percent to 3,748.1 and the Sydney Ordinaries gained 1.46 percent to 3,726 and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was 2.43 percent higher to 13,542.66.

With oil prices higher, CNOOC (SEHK: 0883; NYSE: CEO) added 4.4 percent in Hong Kong while oil producer and miner BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP; NYSE: BHP; LSE: BLT) was up 5.6 percent in Australia and Inpex (TYO: 1605) gained 9.2 percent in Tokyo after it was granted new exploration rights in an Indonesian oil field.

Not all indices saw gains, however, as the Kospi dropped 0.02 percent to 1,088.26 in South Korea and the Sensex fell 1.58 percent to 9,385.42 in India.

US equities markets were lower in early afternoon trade as investors took profits after significant gains on Thursday.

At nearly 1 p.m. on Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.92 percent to 8,574.96 while the Nasdaq Composite had fallen 3.6 percent to 1,539.18 and the S&P 500 had dropped 3.41 percent to 880.26.

The New York markets were also hurt by comments from US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to a meeting in Germany that world markets are still under “severe strain”, while new data from the US Commerce Department showed that retail sales dropped by a record amount in October.

US retail sales dropped by 2.8 percent last month, the biggest decline on record and a larger decline than had been expected.

Auto sales led the declines, falling by 5.5 percent in the month, but even excluding car sales, overall retail sales dropped 2.2 percent, also a record.

Furniture stores saw sales drop by 2.5 percent while sales at specialty clothing stores were down by 1.4 percent and sales at big chains and department stores fell by 0.4 percent.

Sales at restaurants and bars, on the other hand, were up but only by a bare 0.3 percent.

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