LLOY, BARC lead London banks higher

European equities markets saw gains Monday, helped by a prediction from the European Commission that the worst of the economic crisis could be over in the region, despite the fact that a separate report from the Commission warned that unemployment could remain high and could limit recovery.

In London the FTSE 100 was 1.25 percent higher to 4,294.03 while the FTSE 250 added 1.23 percent to 7,477.21 on the session.

Banks were higher as Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY) led the 100 and the sector with a gain of 6.12 percent and Barclays (LSE: BARC; NYSE: BCS; TYO: 8665) also placed among the top 5 gainers on the 100 as it added 4.31 percent.

Miners were mixed as Rio Tinto (LSE: RIO) added 4.51 percent for the best performance in the sector, while Xstrata (LSE: XTA) fell 3.03 percent as the biggest decliner in the sector.

Travel-related shares had trouble as British Airways (LSE: BAY; NYSE: BAB) was down 1.89 percent and travel agent Thomas Cook Group (LSE: TCG) dropped 1.89 percent.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 1.72 percent to 859.1 while the IBEX added 1.64 percent to 9,845.7, the CAC-40 was 2.04 percent higher to 3,193.68 and the Dax gained 2.27 percent to 4,855.09.

There was only on loser on the CAC-40 as Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext: ALU; NYSE: ALU; TYO: 6687) dropped 2.32 percent, while Schneider Electric (Euronext: SU) led gainers on the Paris index as it added 4.45 percent.

Likewise, there only three companies lost ground on the Dax, led by retailer Metro (FWB: MEO) with a decline of 1.01 percent.

Unlike British Airways in London, airlines were higher as Air France-KLM (Euronext: AF; NYSE: AKH) added 3.04 percent and Lufthansa (FWB: LHA) gained 3.62 percent.

Asian markets were mixed.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was 0.95 percent lower to 8,783.47 and the Topix index fell 1.24 percent to 915.32, but the Mothers market added 0.75 percent to 439.08.

The declines came after broker Daiwa (TYO: 8601) said it will issue new shares for the first time in 20 years and on reports that Mizuho Financial (TYO: 8411; NYSE: MFG) could start selling ¥600 billion in shares this week.

Daiwa was down 12 percent on the session, while Mizuho dropped 3.4 percent. Shippers were lower after the Baltic Dry Index fell 9 percent last week, indicating that the cost of transporting commodities dropped.

Other decliners in the region included the Straits Times Index, which fell 0.03 percent to 2,317.17 while the Hang Seng was down 0.39 percent to 18,528.51.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX200 and the Sydney Ordinaries were each 0.43 percent lower, to 3,886.9 and 3,882.7 respectively while at the same time the Kospi fell 0.44 percent to 1,388.45 and the Taiex dropped 1.12 percent to 6,391.15.

The Sensex added 0.14 percent to 14,785.74 while the Shanghai Composite gained 1.61 percent to 2,975.31.

In early afternoon trade in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.97 percent to 8,520.16 while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.6 percent to 1,849.23 and the S&P 500 gained 0.83 percent to 926.55.

Story link: LLOY, BARC lead London banks higher