Cattles drops on cuts news

European equities markets saw their first declines in several sessions as investors worried that the global recession will get worse before it gets better.

In London, the FTSE 100 dropped 2.83 percent to 4,507.51 while the FTSE 250 fell 1.7 percent to 6,762.3.

The 250’s losses were led by consumer lender Cattles (LSE: CTT), which dropped 16.95 percent after it said it will cut jobs and limit the amount of money it will lend this year.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 1.53 percent to 875.94 while the CAC-40 fell 1.48 percent to 3,346.09, the IBEX dropped 1.58 percent to 9,570 and the Dax was 1.77 percent lower to 4,937.47.

Markets in the Asia-Pacific region were mixed after an Indian IT firm admitted to overstatement of profits over the past several years.

The Sensex, India’s benchmark index, ended the session with a decline of 7.25 percent to 9,586.88.

Other decliners on the session included the Shanghai Composite, which fell 0.68 percent to 1,924.01 while the Straits Times Index was down 1.73 percent to 1,880 and the Hang Seng dropped 3.37 percent to 14,987.46.

Tokyo indexes were mostly higher on the session, with the Nikkei 225 up 1.74 percent to 9,239.24 for its highest close in two months, while the Topix index was also higher, adding 1.38 percent to 888.25, but the Mothers market of small and mid-caps dropped 1.05 percent to 340.27.

Other gainers included Australia’s S&P/ASX200, which was up 0.99 percent to 3,779.7, and the Sydney Ordinaries’ gain of 1.06 percent to 3,728.2.

Taiwan’s Taiex was up 1.32 percent to 4,789.84 while the Kospi added 2.84 percent to 1,228.17.

Wall Street was hurt by the new jobs numbers after a private report showed that the US lost almost 700,000 jobs in December, ahead of the official Labor Department report which is due later in the week.

In early afternoon trade the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 2 percent lower to 8,834.86 while the Nasdaq Composite was down 2.32 percent to 1,613.98 and the S&P 500 had dropped 2.15 percent to 914.57.

Crude oil prices were down in afternoon trade in New York, while precious metals prices were mixed.

The US dollar was also hurt by report on jobs, weakening in relation to the euro and the yen.

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