By Golnar Motevalli
LONDON, April 9 (Reuters) - European shares ended down 0.7
percent on Wednesday, pressured by financials ahead of interest
rate decisions from the Bank of England (BoE) and European
Central Bank (ECB) in the next session.
The FTSEurofirst 300 <> index of top European shares
ended down 0.72 percent at 1,308.92 points.
Banks and financials extended losses from the previous day
on concerns that credit market losses would hurt earnings in the
quarter. HBOS <HBOS.L> fell 4.2 percent on a downgrade from
Credit Suisse.
ING <ING.AS> fell 2.9 percent, BNP Paribas <BNPP.PA> fell
2.3 percent and Credit Suisse <CSGN.VX> lost 3.4 percent.
"My instinct is that we'll probably be trading around in a
rather similarly choppy way in the first quarter until people
are confident that their dirty washing has all been revealed,"
said Andrew Bell, European strategist at Rensburg Sheppards.
"There's an awful lot of stimulus being thrown at these
economies and usually, in time, those stimuli will work," he
said.
"It's cheap enough for you to nibble away in anticipation
that in a year's time the market will be in a more optimistic
frame of mind," he added.
Energy stocks gained after crude oil <CLc1> tipped over $111
a barrel. BP <BP.L> rose 1.6 percent, Total <TOTF.PA> rose 1.3
percent and Shell <RDSa.L> added 1 percent.
Pharmaceuticals were led lower by Switzerland's Roche
<ROG.VX>, which fell 3.6 percent on talk that its U.S. partner,
Genentech Inc <DNA.N> would report weak results on Thursday.
Across Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 <> lost 0.1 percent,
Germany's DAX <> fell 0.75 percent and France's CAC
<> declined 0.8 percent.
RATES, DATA EYED
The European Central Bank is forecast to maintain interest
rates at 4 percent, according to analysts polled by Reuters,
keeping its hawkish stance despite easing from its U.S. and
British counterparts.
"The ECB comes out and talks about inflation, if they talk
that kind of hawkish talk when the rest of the world is looking
at easing, that could put the euro stronger and be negative for
European equities," said Bernard McAllinden, investment
strategist at NCB Stockbrokers.
McAlinden added that it was likely that banks had reached a
"neurosis peak" and the worst of bad earnings may be over.
A clutch of macroeconomic data expected on Thursday would
also provide evidence of an economic slowdown in Europe and the
United States.
U.S. jobless claims for the past week are expected at 1230
GMT.
French and Italian industrial output figures for February
are expected at 0645 GMT and 0800 GMT, respectively.
In the United States, the Nasdaq <> was down 1 percent
while the S&P 500 <.SPX> fell 0.75 percent and the Dow Jones
industrial average <> dropped 0.6 percent.
(Reporting by Golnar Motevalli)
