BARC drops 10 percent

European equities markets were lower again Tuesday, with banks and insurers among the biggest losers on the session.

The FTSE 100 was down 0.61 percent to 4,399.15 in London, while the FTSE 250 dropped 2.07 percent to 6,547.29 after more bad news from the housing sector as sales and house prices continued to decline.

Barclays Bank (LSE: BARC; NYSE: BCS; TYO: 8642) turned in the worst performance of the day on the 100 as it dropped 10.13 percent, while the Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS; NYSE: RBS PRM) fell 7.09 percent.

Among insurers, Aviva (LSE: AV) was down 8.15 percent while Friends Provident (LSE: FP) dropped 8.88 percent.

Gold miner Randgold (LSE: RRS; NAS: GOLD) led winners on the 100 with a gain of 6.37 percent and iron-ore producer Ferrexpo (LSE: FXPO) had the best day on the 250 as it added 12.42 percent, but most miners saw declines, led lower by Aquarius Platinum (LSE: AQP; ASX: AQP; JSE: AQP), which fell 9.8 percent.

Banks didn’t do much better on the European continent as Dexia (Euronext: DX) dropped 9.49 for the worst performance on the CAC-40 and Commerzbank (FWB: CBK) fell 5.37 percent on the Dax, while insurer Axa (Euronext: CS; NYSE: AXA) dropped 4.85 percent on the Paris exchange.

Carmakers also saw declines as Renault (Euronext: RNO) was down 5.31 percent and Volkswagen (FWB: VOW) dropped 7.69 percent to lead losers on the Dax.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 1.51 percent to 840.36 while the CAC-40 fell 1.49 percent to 3,197.89, the IBEX was 1.55 percent lower to 9,057.3 and the Dax dropped 1.75 percent to 4,636.94.

Most Asia-Pacific equities markets were also lower on the session.

In Tokyo, the declines came on continuing concerns about corporate losses, on more bankruptcies in the real estate sector, and on a stronger yen that hurt exporters.

The Nikkei 225 was down 4.79 percent to 8,413.91 while the Topix index fell 4.78 percent to 814.12 and the Mothers market dropped 1.73 percent to 329.55.

Mitsubishi Estate (TYO: 8802) was 9.2 percent lower and Tokyo Tatemono (TYO: 8804) fell 16 percent on a downgrade to “underperform” after real estate advisor Creed Corp (TYO: 8888) and condominium builder Toshin Housing (TYO: 1754) both filed for bankruptcy last week.

Last year, three-quarters of the business bankruptcies in Japan came from real estate linked firms.

Meanwhile in the electronics sector, Sony (TYO: 6758; NYSE: SNE) was down 8.9 percent and chipmaker Toshiba (TYO: 6502; LSE: TOS) fell 8.6 percent on reports that each will post losses for the first time in several years.

Among carmakers, Toyota (TYO: 7203; NYSE: TM; LSE: TYT) was 6.4 percent lower while Honda (TYO: 7267; NYSE: HMC) dropped 6.8 percent.

Other decliners in the region included India’s Sensex, which fell another 0.42 percent on continuing fallout from the fraud admissions of computer services firm Satyam (Sensex: 500376; NYSE: SAY), while the Straits Times Index was down 0.81 percent to 1,761.82.

In Australia the S&P/ASX200 was 0.78 percent lower to 3,654.6 and the Sydney Ordinaries dropped 0.83 percent to 3,593.9, while the Shanghai Composite fell 1.95 percent to 1,863.37 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 2.17 percent to 13,668.05.

South Korea’s Kospi added 0.95 percent to 1,167.71 while the Taiex gained 1.76 percent to 4,532.36 in Taiwan.

At around 1:30 p.m. in New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.51 percent lower to 8,430.48 while the Nasdaq Composite had dropped 0.03 percent to 1,538.35 and the S&P 500 was down 0.26 percent to 867.99.

In the financial services sector, Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) saw declines on an analyst forecast that predicted a fourth quarter loss for the bank.

In afternoon trade, Bank of America was down 7.35 percent.

At the same time, the oil sector saw gains as crude oil prices were after substantial declines on Monday as Chevron (NYSE: CVX) added 1.27 percent while ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) was up 1.57 percent.

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