European stocks fare better than Asia at opening

08/08/11 09:33 CET

world news

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European stock exchanges opened on Monday morning with better than expected figures.

London was down just over 1 per cent, Frankfurt’s DAKS started down 1 per cent, while Paris opened up by 0.74 per cent.

Madrid too was up by 0.63 and Milan opened almost level before starting to climb.

Despite all the frantic activity from Europe’s financial leaders over the weeked, analysts say it was the downgrading of the US debt status that rattled Asian markets on Monday.

Tokyo’s Nikkei closed down 2.2 per cent, Hong Kong fell 4, Singapore 5 and South Korea more than 7 per cent.

Uncertainty caused investors to rush for the historical safety of gold which reached a record high of just over 1700 dollars an ounce.

More about: Asia, Economic crisis, Europe, US debt, USA

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