• Most Popular
  • Most Shared

European shares briefly turn positive; banks up

Fri Jul 10, 2009 5:00am EDT

Stocks

   

LONDON, July 10 (Reuters) - European shares briefly turned positive in morning trade on Friday after Commerzbank (CBKG.DE) extended gains on news that the company saw improving trends in the second quarter, but weaker oil stocks weighed on the market.

Stocks  |  Global Markets

The FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top European shares was down 0.1 percent at 822.87 points after rising as high as 824.42 earlier in the session.

Commerzbank rose 3 percent, while Standard Chartered (STAN.L), Barclays (BARC.L), Lloyds (LLOY.L), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L) and Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) were up 0.4-2 percent.

Energy stocks tracked crude oil prices CLc1, which fell 0.3 percent. BP (BP.L), Royal Dutch Shell (RDSb.L), BG Group (BG.L), Tullow Oil (TLW.L), Total (TOTF.PA) and StatoilHydro (STL.OL) shed between 0.2 and 0.9 percent. (Reporting by Atul Prakash in London and Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt)

Stocks
Global Markets


More from Reuters

Pro Life Democrat Rep. Bart Stupak holds an Executive Order from U.S. President Barack Obama claiming no money from passage of the health care bill will be used for abortion while on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 21, 2010. At left is Rep. Kathleen Dahlkemper (D-Pa). REUTERS/Larry Downing

Healthcare overhaul headed for passage

House Democrats neared passage of a healthcare bill that would create the biggest policy changes in decades and hand President Obama a landmark victory.  Full Article | Video 

Healthcare reform
A soldier guards hundreds of bags of wheat seed in the isolated district of Nad Ali's district centre in the west of Helmand province, October 17, 2009

Dirty money and Afghan war

As the war in Afghanistan enters its ninth year, the U.S. has finally realized the best way to stop the conflict is to cut the flow of drug money, columnist Bernd Debusmann writes.   Commentary 

    Afghanistan
    An H1N1 flu vaccine inoculation is given at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania October 28, 2009. REUTERS/Brad Bower

    A new stab at conquering pain

    Millions of people worldwide suffer chronic pain that can last weeks, months or years but relief may be on the way.  Full Article 

      Pharmaceuticals