European stocks fell for a fourth week, the longest losing streak since July, amid concern that Greece, Spain and Portugal will struggle to curb their budget deficits.
Allied Irish Banks PLC and Banco de Valencia SA led bank shares to the biggest decline among 19 industry groups in the Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index this week. Xstrata PLC and Rautaruukki Oyj both sank more than 7 percent as copper retreated for a fourth week. Neste Oil Oyj slumped 9.8 percent after Finland’s only oil refiner posted a fourth-quarter net loss. Electrolux AB tumbled 13 percent after fourth-quarter earnings missed analysts’ estimates.
The Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index dropped 3.9 percent to 237.46 this week, the lowest level in three months. Stocks in Spain and Portugal slumped the most in 15 months on Thursday on concern they would struggle to shrink their budget shortfalls. Credit-default swaps on the sovereign debt of those countries rose to record high levels on Friday, according to CMA DataVision prices.
“European markets are being rocked by the sovereign debt contamination emanating from Greece and arriving in Portugal and Spain,” said Neil Dwane, who helps oversee about US$80 billion as chief investment officer at Allianz Global Investors’ RCM unit in Frankfurt. “Country contagion risk now seems real. Governments without a credible economic plan will be punished by higher borrowing costs which may then result in a double dip, or worse, for the economies concerned.”
The STOXX 600 has fallen 6.5 percent so far this year, as US President Barack Obama proposed limits on risk-taking at banks and China moved to cool its economy. The gauge, which is still up 50 percent since March, is 3.23 points away from entering a correction, defined as a 10 percent drop from a recent high. The measure reached 260.26 on Jan. 19.
National benchmark indexes fell in all 18 western European markets except Iceland. The UK’s FTSE 100 retreated 2.5 percent, while Germany’s DAX fell 3.1 percent and France’s CAC 40 slid 4.7 percent.
As eight basketball-playing international students appealed to the Taiwanese basketball industry after they were excluded from the draft of an upcoming new league merging the P.League+ and the T1 League, the new league’s preparatory committee spokesperson Chang Shu-jen (張樹人) yesterday said the committee would tomorrow discuss the supplementary measures and whether the international students can join the draft. The students on Tuesday called for support on their right to play in the upcoming new league, after a merger involving the two leagues impacted their eligibility for the draft. The international players from the University Basketball Association (UBA), led by first pick prospect
Some foreign companies are considering moving Taiwanese employees out of China after Beijing said it could impose the death penalty on “die-hard” Taiwanese independence advocates, four people familiar with the matter said. The new guidelines have caused some Taiwanese expatriates and foreign multinationals operating in China to scramble to assess their legal risks and exposure, said the people, who include a lawyer and two executives with direct knowledge of the discussions. “Several companies have come to us to assess the risks to their personnel,” said the lawyer, James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based partner at the Perkins Coie law firm. He declined to identify
WARNING: China has stepped up harassment of foreign vessels after its new regulation took effect last month, an official said, citing an incident in the Diaoyutai Islands The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday linked China’s seizure of a Taiwanese fishing vessel illegally operating in its territorial waters to Beijing’s new regulation authorizing the China Coast Guard to seize boats in waters it claims. Chinese officials boarded and then seized a Taiwanese fishing vessel operating near China’s coast close to Kinmen County late on Tuesday and took it to a Chinese port, the CGA said. The Penghu-registered squid fishing vessel Da Jin Man No. 88 (大進滿88) was boarded and seized by China Coast Guard east-northeast of Liaoluo Bay (料羅灣), 17.5 nautical miles (32.4km) from Taiwan’s restricted waters off Kinmen,
PROPOSAL: The submarines, the first of which would enter into production in 2026, would fire Harpoon missiles and feature better combat systems than the ‘Hai Kun’ The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has proposed a NT$284 billion (US$8.75 billion) plan to build seven attack submarines using an improved design based on the completed Hai Kun (海鯤), or “Narwhal,” prototype submarine, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. The plan — which has the support of high-ranking officials — falls under the ministry’s annual budget proposal that is to be submitted to the Executive Yuan, the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The new submarines are designed to fire heavy torpedoes and Harpoon missiles, while the Hai Kun is only capable of firing heavy torpedoes, and