Lloyds Banking Group up on launch of rights issue

European equities markets were lower Tuesday, led down by banks and miners.

The FTSE 100 was down 1.32 percent to 5,037.21 in London, while the FTSE 250 fell 1.81 percent to 8,756.68, with banks leading both gainers and losers on the 100.

Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY) added 2.74 percent and was the only gainer in the London banking sector after it launched an expected rights issue worth £13.5 billion, while Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS) fell 7.04 percent to lead the rest of the sector lower after it agreed to sell off some of its assets as the British Treasury said that between Lloyds and RBS, the two banks will have to sell assets equal to 10 percent of the UK’s retail banking market.

Declines in the mining sector, spurred by concerns about demand, were led by Ferrexpo (LSE: FXPO), which dropped 4.26 percent, while the four gainers in the sector were led by Randgold Resources (LSE: RRS) with a gain of 2.62 percent.

Homebuilders were lower, led by Barratt Developments (LSE: BDEV) with a decline of 7.99 percent, while the real estate sector was also down, led by St. Modwen Properties (LSE: SMP), which dropped 6.87 percent.

The biggest loser on the session in London was directories publisher Yell Group (LSE: YELL) with a decline of 15.64 percent on the 250, while the best performer in London was packaging group DS Smith (LSE: SMDS), which added 7.2 percent on the session.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 1.02 percent to 970.26 while the Dax fell 1.43 percent to 5,353.35, the CAC-40 was 1.52 percent lower to 3,584.25 and the IBEX dropped 1.95 percent to 11,242.4.

With Tokyo’s markets closed in observance of Culture Day, most other markets in the Asia-Pacific region were lower Tuesday.

The exception was the Shanghai Composite, which added 1.22 percent to 3,114,23.

In Australia, markets were down after the Reserve Bank of Australia raised interest rates for the second month in a row, from 3.25 percent to 3.5 percent.

The Sydney Ordinaries fell 0.14 percent to 4,540 while the S&P/ASX200 were 0.2 percent lower to 4,531.5 as banks declined but gold miners saw gains.

Elsewhere in the region, the Taiex was down 0.17 percent to 7,322.93 while the Kospi fell 0.59 percent to 1,549.92, the Straits Times Index was 0.9 percent lower, the Hang Seng was down 1.76 percent to 21,240.06 as declines for property developers hurt Hong Kong’s markets and India’s Sensex dropped 3.09 percent to 15,404.94.

At just before 1 p.m. in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.19 percent lower to 9,770.62 while at the same time the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.08 percent to 2,047.57 and the S&P 500 had dropped 0.02 percent to 1,042.67.

Gold, copper and crude oil prices were all up around midday in New York.

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