UpdateEurope chem stocks hit by rate worries

23 January 2008 18:00  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Europe’s chemicals makers suffered on Wednesday as the region’s stock markets continued to tumble.

The Dow Jones Eurostoxx chemicals index was down 5.10% at the close with German chemicals giants BASF and Bayer among the biggest sector losers. BASF’s share price lost 5.84% with Bayer down 5.66%.

Smaller specialties players were not as hard hit as the market reacted to comments from European Central Bank president Jean- Claude Trichet that suggested Europe might not follow the US in cutting interest rates.

The US Federal Reserve cut US interest rates sharply on Tuesday amid concerns of on-going weakness in the US economy.

The 0.75 percentage point rate cut brought some confidence back to Asian markets on Wednesday. Europe’s markets, however, traded lower with the Dow Jones Stoxx index off 3.40% and the Euronext 100 index down 3.77%. The FTSE 100 index closed down 2.28%.

By: Staff Reporter
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