Insurers OML, AV see declines

Most European equities markets were lower Friday as banks again declined and insurers had a rough day as well.

The FTSE 100 managed a gain of just 0.01 percent to 4,052.47 in London, but the FTSE 250 was 1.28 percent lower to 6,088.13.

Insurer Old Mutual (LSE: OML; JSE: OLOML) turned in the worst performance on the 100 as it dropped 13.61 percent, while Aviva (LSE: AV) was 6.71 percent lower.

The biggest loser on the 250 came from the engineering sector, where Renishaw (LSE: RSW) dropped 21.28 percent.

Most London banks were lower, led by Barclays Bank (LSE: BARC; NYSE: BCS; TYO: 8642) with a decline of 13.51 percent.

Banks were also mostly lower elsewhere in the region as Deutsche Bank (FWB: DBK; NYSE: DB) turned in the worst performance of the day as it fell 4.61 percent while Societe Generale (Euronext: GLE) was down 6.03 percent and BNP Paribas (Euronext: BNP; TYO: 8665) dropped 7.84 percent.

A bank also had the best day on the Dax as well, however, as Commerzbank (FWB: CBK) added 2.23 percent.

Among insurers, Axa (Euronext: CS; NYSE: AXA) was down 6.67 percent while reinsurer Swiss Re (SIX: RUKN) dropped 19.6 percent on fears that it will have to take more writedowns.

Airlines were lower as Air France-KLM (Euronext: AF; NYSE: AKH) fell 4.09 percent and Lufthansa (FWB: LHA) dropped 4.26 percent.

Utilities turned in the best performance on the CAC-40, with EDF (Euronext: EEN) adding 2.38 percent while GDF-Suex (Euronext: GSZ, GSZB) gained 3.32 percent on the session.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was 1.46 percent lower while the CAC-40 was down 0.71 percent to 2,849.14 and the Dax dropped 0.96 percent to 4,178.94 but Spain’s IBEX added 0.17 percent to 8,172.8.

Asia-Pacific equities markets saw declines on the session, as well.

The Nikkei 225 was down 3.81 percent to 7,745.25, its lowest close in two months, while the Topix index fell 2.81 percent to 773.55 but the Mothers market of small and mid-caps added 0.6 percent to 329.66.

The Nikkei’s declines came after consumer electronics giant Sony (TYO: 6758; NYSE: SNE) dropped 7 percent on an announcement that it will likely post a ¥260 billion operating loss in the fiscal year ending in March, much more of a loss than had been estimated earlier.

Sony blamed the losses on a stronger yen, the costs of its restructuring and on the falling demand for its products.

The steel sector declined after Nippon Steel (TYO: 5401) said it will cut production twice as much as it announced earlier.

Nippon Steel was down 5 percent while JFE Holdings (TYO: 5411) dropped 7.9 percent.

The consumer finance sector saw significant declines after Japan’s Supreme Court ruled that the statute of limitations on when a borrower can claim excessive interest repayments runs from when the loan was paid in full rather than fro when he or she began to repay the loan.

The ruling gives consumers a longer window in which they can claim that the interest paid on loans was excessive, to the disadvantage of those issuing the loans, sending Takefuji (TYO: 8564) down 11.7 percent while Promise (TYO: 8574) dropped 14.2 percent.

The Hang Seng was down 0.63 percent to 12,578.6, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.71 percent to 1,990.66, the Straits Times Index was 1.38 percent lower to 1,685.23, the Sensex dropped 1.58 percent to 8,674.35 and the Kospi was down 2.05 percent to 1,093.4.

In Australia, the Sydney Ordinaries fell 3.83 percent to 3,300.3 while the S&P/ASX200 dropped 4.13 percent to 3,342.7.

In Taiwan, the Taiex remained closed to trade for a second day and will remain closed through February 1 in observation of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Earnings disappointments were hard on Wall Street in afternoon trade, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.32 percent to 8,015.28 while the S&P 500 dropped 0.24 percent to 825.54.

On the other hand technology shares were helped, sending the Nasdaq Composite up 0.38 percent to 1,471.02, on better news from Google (NAS: GOOG).

Google was up 7.06 percent at just almost 1:30 p.m. in New York after it issued a better than expected quarterly report.

The news was not as good elsewhere.

General Electric (NYSE: GE) was down 7.27 percent in afternoon trade after it reported that its earnings dropped 44 percent in the fourth quarter..

Credit card issuer Capital One Financial Corp (NYSE: COF) dropped 12.17 percent after it said it lost $1.45 billion in the last quarter of 2008, spurring several analysts to cut their earnings estimates on the company, while motorcycle manufacturer Harley Davidson (NYSE: HOG) was down 4.84 percent after it said that its fourth quarter earnings were down by nearly 60 percent and announced that it will reduce shipments and cut jobs.

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