Insurers Prudential, Aviva see declines

Europe’s equities markets declined Thursday after miners and the oil sector saw declines.

In London the FTSE 100 was down 3.26 percent to 3,874.99 while the FTSE 250 dropped 2.24 percent to 5,578.68.

The biggest losers on the 100 were insurers as Prudential (LSE: PRU; NYSE: PUK) was down 16.33 percent and Aviva (LSE: AV) turned in the worst performance of the day with a decline of 16.77 percent.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 3.71 percent to 781.9 while the IBEX fell 2.72 percent to 7,988.4, the Dax was 3.08 percent lower to 4,220.2 and the CAC-40 dropped 3.48 percent to 2,980.42.

Equities markets in the Asia-Pacific region were lower on worries about deflation after US consumer prices were reported yesterday to have fallen 1 percent in October.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was down 6.89 percent to 7,703.04 while the Topix index fell 5.46 percent to 782.28 and the Mothers market of small and mid-caps dropped 4.86 percent to 295.78.

Elsewhere in the region the Shanghai Composite was down 1.67 percent to 1,983.76 while the Straits Times Index fell 3.1 percent to 1.613.95, the Sensex was 3.68 percent lower to 8,451.01 and the Hang Seng dropped 4.04 percent to 12,298.56.

In Australia the S&P/ASX200 was down 4.19 percent to 3,352.9 and the Sydney Ordinaries fell 4.32 percent to 3,332.6 while the Taiex was 4.53 percent lower to 4,089.93 and the Kospi dropped 6.7 percent to 948.69.

Wall Street was mixed in afternoon trade, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down 0.12 percent to 7,987.88 at just before 2 p.m. in New York, while the S&P 500 was 0.44 percent lower to 803.07 but the Nasdaq Composite was 0.53 percent higher to 1,393.81.

Commodities prices, including oil, grains and most metals, were lower.

The yen strengthened on the chance that investors will abandon carry trades.

Discuss this in the Finance Markets forums

Story link: Insurers Prudential, Aviva see declines