The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down by over 1 percent to 1,466.97 on Tuesday. The banking sector was instrumental in the declines as worries about the US subprime mortgage sector continued in abundance, despite analyst opinion that it would not turn out to have that much effect in the European sector.
Among investment banks, UBS (SWX: UBSN; NYSE: UBS; TYO: 8657) dropped 1.1 percent to €70.20, while Deutsche Bank (NYSE: DB) and Credit Suisse (SWX: CSGN; NYSE: CS) each fell 1.9 percent, to €96.46 and €85.75 respectively. Commerzbank (DAX: CBK) was 2.9 percent lower, not only on the general sentiment in the sector, but also due to a statement from Citigroup (NYSE: C) that it is not interested in bidding on the German bank.
In the chemicals sector, Akzo Nobel (Eurofirst: AKZ; NAS: AKZOY) added 0.8 percent to €54.11, still buoyed by news of the sale of its Organon drugs unit to US company Schering-Plough (NYSE: SGP). ING (Euronext: INGA; NYSE: ING) upgraded Akzo from “hold” to “buy” and upped its target share price to €64, citing a sale price for the company that was €3 billion dollars than market estimates.
Altadis (IBEX-35: ALT) added 1 percent to €38.20 even though it denied that UK tobacco company Imperial Tobacco (LSE: IMT) was looking for a friendly merger in order to stop an approach by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.