UpdateCredit fears drive down Europe chems

17 March 2008 17:58  [Source: ICIS news]

(Updates, adding latest figures throughout)

 

LONDON (ICIS news)--European chemicals stocks showed little sign of recovery in late afternoon trading after dropping on the back of renewed fears of a global credit crisis.

 

At 16:50 GMT, the Dow Jones Stoxx Chemicals index was down 1.7% on Friday’s close, with London’s FTSE down 3.9% and Germany’s DAX losing 4.2% of its value.

 

Akzo Nobel shares dropped 3.6%, Lanxess was down 6.4%, while Bayer and BASF took more moderate losses.

 

In Asia, the buyout coupled with a weakening dollar and record crude oil prices caused indexes across the region to fall up to 5%.

 

Europe’s stock indexes fell after JPMorgan Chase said it would buy out troubled investment bank Bear Stearns in a bid to stave off wider chaos in financial markets.

 

By: Mark Watts
+44 20 8652 3214

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