LLOY, HBOS lead London banks lower

Most of Europe’s equities markets saw gains Tuesday as crude oil prices that were slightly higher in New York trade sent some oil producers higher and on hopes that the recession will not hurt profits too much after relatively good news from some US companies.

The FTSE 100 added 1.85 percent to 4,208.55 in London, but the FTSE 250 was 0.85 percent lower to 5,925.98.

Banks were lower on the session as Lloyds TSB (LSE: LLOY) fell 11.95 percent and HBOS (LSE: HBOS) turned in the worst performance on the 100 with a decline of 15.44 percent.

The mining sector was mixed as Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO) added 8.92 percent for the best day on the 100 but Xstrata (LSE: XTA), also on the 100, dropped 8.73 percent.

Insurers were higher as Legal & General (LSE: LGEN) added 7.54 percent, Aviva (LSE: AV) was up 8.58 percent and Friends Provident (LSE: FP) gained 8.59 percent.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.73 percent to 843.56 as the IBEX added 0.38 percent to 8,530.8, the Dax was 0.49 percent higher to 4,579.47 and the CAC-40 gained 1.11 percent to 3,217.4.

Despite the gains on the session, banks saw declines.

The four biggest losers on the CAC-40 were all banks as Credit Agricole (Euronext: ACA) fell 4.46 percent, BNP Paribas (Euronext: BNP; TYO: 8665) was down 5.13 percent, Societe Generale (Euronext: GLE) was 5.69 percent lower and Dexia (Euronext: DX) dropped 11.91 percent.

Over on the Dax, Deutsche Bank (FWB: DBK; NYSE: DB) fell 1.64 percent while Commerzbank (FWB: CBK) put in the worst performance with a decline of 3.12 percent.

The best performance on the Dax came from retailer Metro (FWB: MEO) which added 3.76 percent.

In the oil sector, Royal Dutch Shell’s (LSE: RDSA, RDSB; NYSE: RDS.A, RDS.B) A and B shares added 3.99 percent and 1.36 percent respectively, while BP (LSE: BP; NYSE: BP; TYO: 5051) was up 4.05 percent and Total (Euronext: FP; NYSE: TOT) gained 4.6 percent.

Equities markets in the Asia-Pacific region were lower Tuesday.

Banks in the region were lower after Citigroup (NYSE: C) said it will let up to 15 percent of its employees go, while Australia’s markets declined ahead of Wednesday’s planned lifting of its ban on the sale of non-financial securities, although the ban will remain in place for financial securities.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 2.28 percent to 8,328.41 while the Topix index was down 1.77 percent to 835.44 and the Mothers market of small and mid-caps dropped 3.28 percent to 317.41.

Property developers in Tokyo saw declines on fears that profits will fall in the sector as demand slows.

Mitsui Fudosan (TYO: 8801; NAS: MDSFF) was down 5.9 percent while Mitsubishi Estate (TYO: 8802) fell 8.3 percent and condominium developer Hoosiers Corp. (TYO: 8907) dropped 17 percent.

Insurers were also lower as Tokio Marine Holdings (TYO: 8766; NAS: MLEA) was 8.8 percent lower and Sompo Japan Insurance (TYO: 8755) was down 8.9 percent.

Taiwan’s Taiex was 3.03 percent lower to 4,305.18 and the Straits Times Index fell 3.26 percent to 1,692.55 while in Australia the Sydney Ordinaries dropped 3.47 percent to 3,513.1 and the S&P/ASX200 was 3.55 percent lower to 3,523.2.

India’s Sensex was down 3.81 percent to 8,937.2 after the central bank there said that the nation’s economic growth could slow in the current fiscal year, which ends on 31 March.

In South Korea, the Kospi fell 3.91 percent to 1,036.16 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 4.54 percent to 12,915.89 and the Shanghai Composite dropped 6.31 percent to 1,902.43.

Wall Street was mixed just before 1 p.m. in New York as the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up slightly, adding 0.45 percent to 8,310.77 but the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.88 percent to 1,469.04 and the S&P 500 had dropped 0.22 percent to 848.87.

Sentiment was helped as Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) issued a positive outlook, saying that fourth-quarter and full-year results should be above expectations.

HP was up 10.46 percent.

On the other hand, carmakers were down as lead executives prepared to testify before the Senate Banking Committee in hopes of securing a government bailout for their industry.

Ford (NYSE: F), which had been up slightly earlier, was down 0.58 percent while General Motors (NYSE: GM) was down 9.75 percent.

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