European stock markets shed recent gains this morning as investors trimmed part of the recent war-driven gains as concern over underlying economic weakness returned to the fore.
The markets moved the focus back to the economy, which gave few reasons to be cheerful. Yesterday's rally took the main indices back to levels not seen since January with analysts noting that the economy did not support that.
The FTSE Eurotop 300 index fell 1.2 per cent to 813.3 after rallying more than 10 per cent in the past week, boosted by increasing hopes that the war in Iraq would soon end with a victory for the coalition forces.
London's FTSE 100 was down nearly 50 points at 10 a.m. on 3886.20, while the ISEQ also lost ground, down 33 points to 4023.01.
Frankfurt's Dax index fell 1.5 per cent to 2,766.3, the Paris CAC 40 was 1 per cent lower at 2,905.5 and in London the FTSE 100 traded down 1.1 per cent at 3,891.1. See London markets report
In New York last night the markets shaved sharp gains to end just marginally above the flat line. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.3 per cent at 8,300.4 and the Nasdaq Composite ended 0.4 per cent higher at 1,389.5.
In Tokyo the Nikkei 225 Average ended 1.4 per cent lower at 8,131.4.
Agencies