LLOY leads London banks on Citigroup report

Equities markets in Europe saw gains Friday, helped by gains in the banking sector after US bank Citigroup (NYSE: C) said that it only lost 18 cents per share in the first quarter, a better performance than analysts had anticipated.

In London, the FTSE 100 added 0.98 percent to 4,092.8 while the FTSE 250 gained 1.15 percent to 7,307.73.

Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY) turned in the best performance of the day on the 100 and led most banks higher as it added 16.61 percent, followed by Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS; NYSE: RBS PRM) with a gain of 14.34 percent.

Miners were mixed on the session as they took three of the five top decliners’ spots on the 100, with Anglo American (LSE: AAL) down 2.34 percent while Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) fell 3.07 percent and Randgold Resources (LSE: RRS; NAS: GOLD) dropped 5.36 percent for the worst day on the 100.

Nickel miner Talvivaara (LSE: TALV) led winners in the sector as it added 5.67 percent.

Media groups were the two top gainers on the 250 as broadcaster ITV (LSE: ITV) added 10.17 percent while Daily Mail and General Trust, with interests in both print journalism and broadcasting, had the best day on the index when it was 15.33 percent higher.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 1.58 percent to 814.69 while the Dax added 1.46 percent to 4,676.84, the IBEX was 1.76 percent higher to 9.030.9 and the CAC-40 gained 1.77 percent to 3,091.96.

Carmakers saw gains as Renault (Euronext: RNO) turned in the best performance of the session on the CAC-40 when it added 10.15 percent while Peugeot (Euronext: UG) was up 5.14 percent, Daimler (FWB: DAI; NYSE: DAI) was 5.09 percent higher and Volkswagen (FWB: VOW) gained 4.72 percent.

Banks saw gains as well, with Commerzbank (FWB: CBK) up 4.74 percent while Societe Generale (Euronext: GLE) added 4.37 percent and BNP Paribas (Euronext: BNP; TYO: 8665) gained 4.56 percent.

There were only 7 losers on the CAC-40, led by hotels operator Accor (Euronext: AC) with a decline of 4.69 percent.

Markets in the Asia-Pacific region were mixed.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 added 1.74 percent to 8,907.58 while the Topix index was 1.63 percent higher to 845.57 and the Mothers market gained 1.44 percent to 319.63.

Steelmakers Nippon Steel (TYO: 5401) and JFE Holdings (TYO: 5411) each added 11 percent on the session after Nippon agreed with Toyota Motor (TYO: 7203; NYSE: TM; LSE: TYT) to cut steel prices.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 was up 0.03 percent to 3,776.7 and the Sydney Ordinaries added 0.07 percent to 3,728.1, while the Hang Seng was 0.12 percent higher in Hong Kong, the Straits Times Index was up 0.25 percent to 1,896.56 and the Sensex gained 0.69 percent to 11,023.09.

Decliners in the region included the Kospi, which was down 0.58 percent to 1,329, while the Shanghai Composite fell 1.19 percent to 1,329 and the Taiex dropped 4.03 percent to 5,755.38.

Wall Street was mixed in afternoon trade at the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.35 percent to 8,154.11 and the S&P 500 was up 0.66 percent to 870.98 but the Nasdaq Composite was 0.04 percent lower to 1,669.74.

The gains came after quarterly results for both Citigroup (NYSE: C) and General Electric (NYSE: GE) were not as dismal as had been expected, but gains were limited when Citigroup also said that it will see more losses due to bad loans it has made and on GE’s report that its financial unit saw profits sink substantially.

At nearly 2 p.m. in New York, General Electric had managed to add 3.34 percent but Citigroup had dropped 3.74 percent at the same time.

Story link: LLOY leads London banks on Citigroup report