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EUROPEAN STOCK MARKETS steadied at the start of trading today, after slumping yesterday on political uncertainty in Italy and Spain, with London’s FTSE 100 index of top companies up 0.05 percent at 6,249.70 points.
Frankfurt’s DAX 30 firmed 0.07 percent to 7,643.54 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 drifted 0.13 percent lower to 3,654.32.
Stock markets plunged on yesterday and the euro dropped against the dollar amid fears of political turmoil in Spain and Italy, with banking shares suffering some of the heaviest losses.
London’s FTSE 100 index of top companies fell by 1.58 percent to close at 6,246.84 points. Frankfurt’s DAX slumped 2.49 percent to 7,638.23 points and in Paris the CAC shed 3.01 percent to 3,659.91 points, its sharpest fall since mid 2012.
Madrid’s IBEX 35 gave up by 3.77 percent in value to 7,919.6 points, while Milan’s FTSE-Mib nosedived 4.50 percent to 16,539 points.
Markets were jolted after Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was pressured to resign amid a growing corruption scandal, while in Italy, the party of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi showed solid gains in polls ahead of national elections later this month.
Spain’s centre-left newspaper El Pais published account ledgers purportedly showing that donations were channelled into secret payments to Rajoy and other top party officials.
Rajoy has dismissed the ledgers as false and has vehemently denies receiving any payments.
“The latest scandal in Spain will continue to unfold over the coming days, placing considerable pressure on the government’s bond yields,” ETX Capital analyst Ishaq Siddiqi noted.
Spanish government bonds
The rate of return on Spanish government 10-year bonds jumped to 5.438 percent in trading on the secondary market, from 5.208 percent on Friday.
Italian 10-year government bond rates rose to 4.468 percent from 4.329 percent, while benchmark German Bunds fell to 1.612 percent from 1.672 percent, a sign that investors were looking again for a safe haven.
“The tensions in Spain and Italy explain the market losses today,” summed up Renaud Murail, a broker at Barclays in Paris.
In New York, US stocks retreated in midday trading yesterday after a dramatic surge on Friday that took the Dow Jones Industrial Average above 14,000 points.
The Dow was down 0.98 percent, while the broad-based S&P 500 also fell by 0.98 percent and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index was off by 1.34 percent.
Unemployment
In Spain, data released yesterday showed that the number of Spaniards officially registered as unemployed rose to 4.98 million in January.
Amid the resurgence in eurozone strains, the European single currency slid to $1.3540 from $1.3637 on Friday, when the euro had reached a 14-month high at $1.3711.
Gold prices fell to $1,666 an ounce from $1,669 on the London Bullion Market last Friday.
A breakdown of the stock losses showed that banks were on the front line, with Santander, the biggest eurozone bank by market capitalisation, shedding 5.7 percent to 5.691 euros in Madrid, while Italian peer UniCredit lost 8.29 percent to 4.25 euros in Milan.
Royal Bank of Scotland was down by 3.49 percent to 328.6 pence in London and Barclays off by 2.83 percent at 291.5 pence.
Finance Minister George Osborne warned during the day that British banks will be broken up if they fail to radically reform by ring-fencing retail operations from their investment arms to avoid any more state bailouts.
In Frankfurt, Commerzbank stock plunged by 5.90 percent to 1.52 euros after Germany’s second-biggest bank said that its full-year net profit tumbled to just 6.0 million euros in 2012 after heavy writedowns pushed it into the red in the fourth quarter.
BNP Paribas was off by 4.41 percent at 44.70 euros in Paris, and Credit Agricole gave up 5.42 percent to 7.12 euros to post the biggest loss among CAC 40 stocks.
Asian stock markets had ended mixed Monday on profit-taking after gains fuelled by the upbeat jobs data out of the United States before the weekend, traders said.
Tokyo closed 0.62-percent higher to hit a 33-month high at 11,260.35 points, while Seoul slipped 0.23 percent and Sydney fell 0.28 percent.
- © AFP 2013.
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And here’s me thinking that email offering me $26,000,000 was fake
In 1950,Nigeria had a population of 33 million.In 2100,the UN estimates their population at somewhere between 500 million – 1 billion.From 2006 up to this year,their population grew a staggering 42 million to 182 million people.There is a lot of extra mouths to be feeding annually.
Sounds like it’s a condom factory they need!
Drinking another animals milk has little nutritional benifit.
Cows milk is for calves.
Hopefully the Nigerian people will give these useless powders the elbow.
They are only relatively new in the western world, a farce form the feminist propaganda era, when “Doctors Smoked Camel”
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/89/09/02/89090293865260abb7284c730f3cd85b.jpg
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Who’s taking the bloody horse to Lagos
Tralee Co.Kerry an unemployment blackspot,let’s build a factory in Nigeria!
Why would it be packaged in Ireland, when its going to be sold in Africa?
The Kerry Group has always been a lot more interested in its shareholders than its employees, Kerry, or Ireland.
Dev, is there a connection between Tralee and Ornua?
Kerry Group have nothing to do with Ornua. Tralee has no connection to Ornua. Why drive yourself out of the market by packaging in Ireland and incurring cost. Uninformed comment is worse than no comment.
No, as far as I’m aware.Kerry Group HQ is in Tralee.They should have some social/corporate responsibility and give more jobs to Kerry.
Arma, Kerygold is a public listed company, so its answerable to its shareholders, who invested money into the company, and not to people of Kerry or Ireland. Same way as Apple, Intel, Facebook, Ebay, Paypal, Dell are answerable to their share holders, or people in their native country of the United States.
Building this packaging factory in Africa makes economic sense. If the products is going to be packaged in Ireland, then you have extra shipping weight, which will increase your shipping costs, making your product more expensive, and less competitive on the shelf. That competitive edge may allow Kerrygold to expand, and increase production in Ireland, where the milk powder comes from. if the packaging was done in Ireland,What happens if the packaging gets damaged in transit? Do they dump it, or send it back to Ireland to be repackaged?
Well then do something to mark Tralee more attractive to employers, rather than just giving out about the employers.
Dev kerrygold is produced by ornua, this article has nothing to do with Kerry group.
*make
Dev Boyjonauth
Look at a map long long way expensive & I assume cold storage way to Nigeria
The Kerrygold brand and the Kerry group have no relationship to each other
Dev Kerrygold and Kerry Group are two separate companies.
BTW In case you did not know Kerry Group has plants all over the world such Ireland, UK, USA, Brazil, Europe, Turkey, Singapore etc.
Armin __ I know that large multi-nationals couldn’t give a toss about the countries where they kick-started their operations, and in the case of the Kerry Group, they’ve long since forgotten that if it weren’t for the original Kerry Co-op members deciding to change the co-op status, there wouldn’t be a Kerry Group. The Kerry farmers probably couldn’t care less either, because their original shares are worth a considerable mint.
Dev,
import or raw materials to make good locally, reduces the amount of excise and duty payable on importing finished goods
Anyhow, it’s an expensive business setting up a factory in Nigeria, having to bribe everyone with a pulse to make it happen. A fella who set up a factory there some years ago, was telling me that he even had to pay people at the docks when machinery was arriving, and that it would be sitting there until a wad of cash was handed over to someone with the power to release it.
The Nigerians, a great bunch of lads ted!
All they need now is jam
Shur what would I know, I’m from Donegal.
Sad that they are trying to convert a breast feeding continent to a bottle feeding one similar to this country.
It’s not baby formula though.
Exactly, refrigerators aren’t widespread in Africa so powdered milk is popular there.
True, but traditional cows milk is perfectly acceptable from 12 months and on average Nigerians breast feed for 18 months. Also baby formula contains powdered milk, the picture in article is misleading as to the product range.
Ye becsuse the continent is a booming beacon of success thanks to all their breastfeeding.
?
Look I know it’s a touchy subject for many as they feel they’re being judged but I doubt the kerrygolds marketing/financial board gives two hoots so long as its profitable like many other corporations. Infant formula is a huge money spinner and the success of its market nation is irrelevant to to them.
Swing and a miss Mark….that is not baby formula. Powered milk and baby formula are actually different you may be surprised to learn
How dare they give African women the same choices that those in the first world have. Is nothing sacred?
Swing and miss to you gene, you might be surprised to learn https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Powdered_milk
Mark….so a single ingredient equates to the sum of ingredients I.e., the final product??
The article is not on about a single product, it says “powdered milk products”. So I fail to see where you are trying to go with this line of argument.
Same reason Guinness is brewed in Nigeria..
If you want access to the Nigerian Market you have to Employ locals/ Source your materials and make your product there.
Good in theory, but by the end of the process only the wrapping is the same.
The biggest Guinness brewery in the world is in Nigeria. They believe it is a Nigerian drink. I kid you not!
Good move. The UN population projections for Nigeria are eye-opening. Their population will go from 180 million now to 650 million by the year 2100. That’s a lot of milk we can export.
I can’t believe it’s not milk.
Will Ornua disclose the salaries of their senior management and CEO? You can bet they won’t, because they’re HUGE! If you thought the salaries in the IFA were bad…..
Ornua is owned by farmers in the same way as the IFA, so farmers have a right to know.
“We work hard to deliver a strong and sustainable return to the Irish dairy farmer.” that’s a laugh!!
“As a co-operative, owned by Ireland’s dairy processors, and in turn by Ireland’s dairy farmers, Ornua’s core aim is to deliver a sustainable, high return for the Irish dairy farmer.” Rubbish. They are only interested n paying themselves as much as they can get away with.
Pet lovers would never deny their pet milk from it’s mother’s breast.
Why do humans?
That’s true Human, but I still wouldn’t fancy it on my cornflakes!
I wouldn’t mind trying a drop.
As long at was from a clean healthy Lass though.
Couldn’t do with a gob full of Toxic Fake Tan, Aerosols, Make Up, Contraception Pills/Medication, Botox, Silicone, Processed Food, Pesticides, Booze and Fags etc.
Ah.. They still won’t have the crusty turnover to put it on!
Nothing like a bit of crusty bread to spread your powered milk on
If Ireland was not part of the EU the amount of food deals we could of did Africa , my partners family are small diary farmers they had opportunity to send milk to Southern Africa but cause of EU quotes and export/import controls could not do.
Even with some of our crops have better nutrients. And African countries wanted them to,
have your say