Publishers PSON, YELL lead 100, 250 in London

Equities markets in Europe were higher Monday after a report that new home sales in the United States were up 11 percent in June from May and as inventories of new homes for sale were at their lowest since February 1998.

The news helped sentiment that economic recovery is on the way.

In London, the FTSE 100 added 0.21 percent to 4,586.13 but the FTSE 250 dropped 0.78 percent to 7,876.86.

Publishers did well on both indexes with publisher Pearson (LSE: PSON; NYSE: PSO) adding 12.05 percent to lead gainers on the 100 while directories publisher Yell Group (LSE: YELL) led winners on the 250 with an advance of 5.65 percent.

Banks were mixed as Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY) was up 6.85 percent but Barclays (LSE: BARC; NYSE: BCS; TYO: 8642) dropped 3.49 percent.

Packaging group Rexam (LSE: REX) dropped 12.12 percent for the biggest loss of the day on the 100, while household chemicals group McBride (LSE: MCB) was down 6.51 percent as it turned in the worst performance of the day on the 250.

Most miners saw gains, led by Talvivaara Mining Company (LSE: TALV) with a gain of 5.04 percent.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.3 percent to 910.1, its highest close since November 10, while the CAC-40 added 0.18 percent to 3,372.36, the Dax was 0.42 percent higher to 5,251.55 and the IBEX gained 1.47 percent to 10,591.7.

Conglomerates led the CAC-40 as Lagardere (Euronext: MMB) added 2.19 percent to lead the index, followed by Bouygues (Euronext: EN) with a gain of 2.17 percent.

Banks were up on the Dax, led by Commerzbank (FWB: CBK) with a gain of 5.84 percent, while Deutsche Bank (FWB: DBK; NYSE: DB) added 2.22 percent and over on the CAC-40 Societe Generale (Euronext: GLE) was up 0.7 percent.

Carmakers turned in the worst performances on both the CAC-40 and the Dax as Peugeot (Euronext: UG) was down 3.54 percent and Daimler (FWB: DAI; NYSE: DAI) fell 2.44 percent, while Renault (Euronext: RNO) was 1.91 percent lower, Volkswagen (FWB: VOW) dropped 1.9 percent and BMW (FWB: BMW) fell 1.04 percent.

Markets in the Asia-Pacific region were mostly higher on the session.

The Nikkei 225 added 1.45 percent to 10,088.66 in Tokyo, climbing for the ninth session in a row for its longest series of gains since 1988, while the Topix index was up 0.85 percent to 928.26 but the Mothers market dropped 0.27 percent to 455.88.

Hitachi (TYO: 6501) added 3.4 percent on a plan to make five subsidiaries wholly-owned units of the electronics giant.

The five subsidiaries, Hitachi Maxell (TYO: 6810), Hitachi Plant Technologies Ltd. (TYO: 1970), Higachi Information Systems Ltd (TYO: 9741), Hitachi Software Engineering (TYO: 9694) and Hitachi Systems & Services Ltd (TYO: 3735) each added around 20 percent on the news.

Shippers, however, were lower on disappointing profits forecasts, with Mitsui OSK Lines (TYO: 9014) down 3.5 percent while Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (TYO: 9107) fell 4 percent and Nippon Yusen (TYO: 9101) dropped 4.6 percent.

Elsewhere in the region, the Taiex added 0.79 percent to 7,028.42 while in Australia the S&P/ASX200 was up 1.22 percent to 4,139.6 and the Sydney Ordinaries gained 1.23 percent to 4,147.8 and the Hang Seng was 1.35 percent higher to 20,251.62 in Hong Kong.

The Kospi added 1.43 percent to 1,524.05, the Straits Times Index was up 1.71 percent to 2,576.66 and the Shanghai Composite gained 1.86 percent to 3,435.21.

In India, the Sensex dropped 0.03 percent to 15,375.04.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.48 percent lower to 9,050.01 in early afternoon trade while the S&P 500 had fallen 0.4 percent to 975.32 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.64 percent to 1,953.28.

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