Unsteady market form in Europe continues

Shares in Europe continued their unsteady form due to continuing fears over the impact of last week’s terrorist attacks in the United States.

The UK share index FTSE 100 was recorded as down 54.3 points on Wednesday afternoon, to stand at 4794.4, with stocks in oil and aerospace firms continuing to suffer from global concern about the price of crude.

However, european shares, which had zig-zagged around opening levels on Wednesday morning, had settled down by lunchtime to levels around par.

Companies gaining from continuing market concern centred around telecoms firms, notably mobile phone operators, as investors sought sectors less likely to be affected by uncertain conditions stemming from last week's attacks on the US.

Earlier, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 share index closed up 2.7 per cent one day after the Bank of Japan joined the round of rate cuts implemented by central banks worldwide.

Shares in airline and aerospace firms were mixed, as investors sought to deduce which companies in the sectors would be worst hit by the slump in air travel after the atrocities.

However Ryanair and EasyJet stock also gained, as hopes rose that carriers not dependent on the transatlantic market would be least affected by the fall in passenger numbers.

The markets are expected to pay close attention to political developments between the US and Afghanistan, amid growing concerns over a US retaliation following the terror attacks on New York and Washington.

In the US the main markets closed down slightly on Tuesday, with the Dow falling 17.3 points to 8,903.4 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq dropping 24.3 points at 1,555.25. (AMcE)