FTSE climbs after shares slump in Tokyo

Stocks in Europe were mixed on Tuesday (February 9th) after a dreadful session in Tokyo saw the benchmark Nikkei 225 lose more than five per cent.

The FTSE 100 added 0.2 per cent in the morning session, with Legal & General rising three per cent. Antofagasta led the decliners with a fall of 6.8 per cent.

In Frankfurt, the DAX was flat, up a mere 0.05 per cent, while the CAC 40 in Paris dropped 0.2 per cent.

Monday had seen the major French and German indices, as well as the Stoxx Europe 600, decline by more than three per cent.

The mixed bag for European equities came after a major drop for Japanese shares overnight as investors continue to test the Bank of Japan’s monetary policy.

The Nikkei 225 shed more than 900 points, just over five per cent, to close at 16,085.44, while the Topix shed more than 5.5 per cent as banking stocks were hammered.

Earlier, US stocks closed down again on Monday, extending losses from last week after the sell-off in Europe.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 1.1 per cent to close at 16,027.05. Visa dropped the most, losing 5.27 per cent, while Chevron rose 3.75 per cent to top the risers.

Safe haven demand saw the price of gold reach its best level since June. Gold futures for April in New York tapped on $1,200 an ounce at one stage on Monday before settling around $1,189 on Tuesday.

Crude prices rose off the back of a weaker dollar, which dropped to 115 versus the yen, its lowest since November 2014.

US light crude for March was up 2.3 per cent at $30.39, while Brent rose 1.6 per cent to $33.41, despite a report from the International Energy Agency warning that the global supply glut is likely to continue for some time to come.

“With the market already awash in oil, it is very hard to see how oil prices can rise significantly in the short term,” the Paris-based agency said.