House builder PSN adds 7.43 percent

European equities markets were lower Tuesday.

In London, the FTSE 100 dropped 0.19 percent to 4,187 but the FTSE 250 managed a slight gain of 0.01 percent to 7,321.38.

Helping the gains on the 250 were advances for house builders, led by Persimmon (LSE: PSN), which gained 7.43 percent to lead gainers on the index while at the same time Barratt Developments (LSE: BDEV) added 7.2 percent and Taylor Wimpey (LSE: TW) was up 4.48 percent.

Distribution and outsourcing group Bunzl (LSE: BNZL) led gainers on the 100 as it added 2.14 percent while brokerage Man Group (LSE: EMG) was the biggest loser of the day on the 100 with a decline of 4 percent.

Most miners were up after yesterday’s losing day, but gold and silver miner Fresnillo (LSE: FRES) was down 3.24 percent for the worst performance in the sector.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.79 percent to 826.44 while the IBEX fell 0.51 percent to 9,520, the CAC-40 was 1.09 percent lower to 3,048.57 and the Dax dropped 1.15 percent to 4,598.19.

Banks were the biggest gainers on both the CAC-40 and the Dax as BNP Paribas (Eurofirst: BNP; TYO: 8665) added 1.23 percent on the Paris index and Deutsche Bank (FWB: DBK; NYSE: DB) was up 1.97 percent was up 1.97 percent to lead the Dax, while Commerzbank (FWB: CBK) was 0.94 percent higher.

The automobile manufacturing sector was mixed as Renault (Eurofirst: RNO) added 0.14 percent but Volkswagen (FWB: VOW) dropped 3.1 percent.

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

The Nikkei 225 dropped 0.34 percent to 9,647.79 in Tokyo, while at the same time the Topix index was 0.36 percent lower to 909.13 and the Mothers market dropped 0.81 percent to 460.73, with declines for the Nikkei coming after gains earlier in the session.

The declines came as concerns continued that economic recovery will not come as quickly as had been hoped.

Miners were lower after Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (TYO: 8306; NYSE: MTU) downgraded Sumitomo Metal Mining (TYO: 5713) from “strong perform” to “market perform” on the basis of expected declines in copper and nickel prices.

Shippers were lower again on falling cargo rates.

Other decliners in the region included Australian markets, where the Sydney Ordinaries fell 0.43 percent to 3,767.8 and the S&P/ASX200 was down 0.44 percent to 3,766.9.

The Hang Seng was 0.65 percent lower to 17,862.27 and the Shanghai Composite dropped 1.13 percent to 3,089.45.

Gaining indexes included the Straits Times Index, which added 0.27 percent to 2,272.26 while at the same time the Kospi was up 0.37 percent to 1,434.2, the Sensex was 0.9 percent higher to 14,170.45 and the Taiex gained 0.98 percent to 6,715.22.

Wall Street was lower in midday trade on concerns that the recovery of the US economy is not proceeding as it should ahead of second quarter earnings reports and a recommendation by an advisor to the Obama administration that a new stimulus plan be considered.

At just past 12:30 p.m. in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 1.25 percent lower to 8,220.43 while at the same time the Nasdaq Composite was down 1.45 percent to 1,761.5 and the S&P 500 had dropped 1.27 percent to 887.3.

Story link: House builder PSN adds 7.43 percent