European stock markets fell yesterday in low volume trade after beginning the week higher, as traders banked profits amid an absence of data and dearth of major company announcements.
London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares dropped 0.06% to 6,303.94 points at close.
Frankfurt’s Dax 30 slid 0.92% to end trading at 7,910.77 points and in Paris the Cac 40 shed 0.66% to close at 3,742.57 points.
Milan slipped 0.61% and Madrid dipped 0.26%.
“In a partial reversal of yesterday’s up move European stock markets have slid back on fairly low volumes, despite some fairly positive economic data from Spain and the UK,” said Michael Hewson, Senior Market Analyst at CMC Markets UK.
“It would appear that for now investors appear content to sit on the sidelines ahead of some key economic data, central bank meetings and the US independence day holiday due later this week,” he said.
Wall Street rose, meanwhile, helped by a gain in US factory orders in May. In midday trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.26% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.45%.
Positive news that began the week continued yesterday with well-received British construction data and news that the number of Spanish jobless benefit claimants took a record plunge in June as an avalanche of summer jobs opened up.
In foreign exchange trading, the euro dropped to $1.3016 from 1.3061 late in New York on Monday. The dollar surged to ¥100.44 from ¥99.66 on Monday.
The dollar crossed the ¥100 level on the back of the US figures, in turn helping to boost share price levels of Japanese exporters, traders said.
In London, the price of gold on the London Bullion Market dipped to $1,252.50 an ounce from $1,252.55 on Monday. Gold last week hit a near three-year low point at $1,180.50 an ounce.
The precious metal, seen as a safe haven amid economic strains, has been battered by receding worries about higher inflation, upbeat US data, a strong dollar and expectations of an end to the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing (QE) stimulus.
Gold lost a quarter of its value in the second quarter, which ended on Friday. That is the heaviest quarterly loss since the early 1970s.
On Monday the Markit Eurozone Composite Purchasing Managers Index rose to a 16-month-high 48.8, from 48.3 in May. While European manufacturing is still shrinking, the latest report suggests a pick-up in even the troubled economies of Italy and Spain.