European stocks closed little changed on Tuesday after struggling to rally amid persistent fears of a deeper crisis stemming from the collapse of Credit Suisse and two US banks. The STOXX 600 closed flat, after rising 0.8 percent for the day. The European Central Bank’s top supervisor expressed concern about the recent sell-off of Deutsche Bank shares last week, which showed investors’ extreme concern.
Shares in the German bank fell nearly 2 percent on Tuesday, after dropping nearly 9 percent last week as the cost of insuring debt against default rose to a four-year high.
Despite the rise of the banking sub-index 0.7 percent, it is on its way to recording its worst performance on a monthly basis since March 2020 when financial markets were suffering from fears of the Corona pandemic.
Swiss bank UBS rose 1.7 percent after its CEO, Ralf Hammers, said in an internal note seen by Reuters that the bank saw the government-supervised takeover of Credit Suisse as an opportunity for growth. Credit Suisse shares rose 0.7 percent.
Real estate stocks were the most affected, as they fell 2.7 percent, touching their lowest level in five and a half months. Energy stocks jumped 1.9 percent, tracking higher oil prices.
BP shares rose 2.3 percent after the company submitted a joint bid with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) today, Tuesday, to acquire 50 percent of Israeli energy company Newmed, which specializes in producing natural gas from offshore fields.
With regard to technology stocks, the share of Softcat Corporation for information technology services and consulting jumped 5.5 percent, to be one of the biggest gainers on the Stoxx 600 index. (Reuters)
