London, Feb 6: Share prices on the London stock market fell in early trading on Friday owing to profit taking and the knock-on effect of a lacklustre performance overnight on Wall Street.The Footsie 100 index shed 31.2 points to 5,575.2. A positive effect of a decision by the Bank of England on Thursday to hold interest rates unchanged, had worn off.
In Paris, the CAC-40 index rose slightly by 0.16 points to 3,189.44, while in Frankfurt the DAX index fell by 17.85 to 4,530.61 and in Amsterdam the AEX index rose 0.2 points at 964.85.
London shares followed the downward lead of Wall Street, where the Dow Jones fell by 12.46 points to 8,117.25 amid profit taking . Financial equities, which have been strong recently, slipped back after profit taking. The price of Alliance and Leicester fell by 26 pence to 915, Barclays by 28 pence to 1,902, Halifax 13 to 925, and Abbey National was flat at 1,277 pence. British Telecom fell by one pence at 580 as Lehman Brothers brokerage took a more cautious position onthe telecoms giant. In Frankfurt, the price Deutsche Bank rose by 1.6 marks or by 1.3 per cent to 121.40 marks on reports, which it described as "crazy" that it might merge with Credit Suisse. Dealers in Paris said that they were waiting for publication later in the day of figures for US employment in January. Analysts expect the data to show that 233,00 0 jobs had been created and that the rate of unemployment would be unchanged at 4.7 per cent.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
