Latin American markets closed higher for the week as Greece gave in to pressure to accept an emergency loan package from the IMF and eurozone, and US data showed a strengthening recovery.
BB: Further reading
Positive reaction to the Greek aid launch announcement proved short-lived by noon London time. An initial rally in European equity markets on the news, up 0.5 to 1 per cent, slowed as investors sensed the respite may be temporary. The Euro, which had traded at one-year low against the US dollar of $1.3199, rose on the news to $1.3349 but later fell back and traded at around $1.3306 in the early afternoon in London.
East European bourses higher as Greece newsflow boosts risk appetite, while strong Germany’s Ifo reading hits its highest since May 2008, boosting sentiment.
BB: AM New York Headlines
Today:
Newsflash: Greece aid launch announcement boosts markets
George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister, today capitulated to market pressure and declared that Greece was ready to ask the International Monetary Fund and the European Union to release a €40bn aid programme.
“It is imperative that we ask for the activation of the mechanism,” Mr Papandreou said while visiting the remote Aegean island of Kastellorizo, according to Reuters.
The move that gave an immediate boost to European financial markets, including emerging markets in central and eastern Europe.
Essar: the need for an independent voice
By Joe Leahy in Mumbai
It is hardly surprising that there is close interest among investors in the hunt by India’s Essar group, one of the country’s biggest conglomerates, for a fifth independent director for Essar Energy, the energy affiliate, it is bringing to the London market in a $2.5bn IPO.
Like many big Indian business groups, Essar is family run and the controlling Ruia brothers are keen to reassure would-be investors that non-family shareholders will given due care and attention.
BB: Further reading
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- Currency futures: an example of how India changes
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- Russia takes an ‘anti-socialist’ stance on healthcare
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