French shares limit damage after New York stock debacle
Submitted by Marina Dimova on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 09:00.
The day after Wall Street posted its worst loss since 2001, French shares were down only moderately on Tuesday, with bank stocks again leading the losers.
One hour after the opening of the Paris Bourse, shares in its benchmark CAC 40 were down 1.39 per cent, to stand at 4,111.06.
Belgian bank Dexia, which owns 500 million euros (709 million dollars) in unsecured bonds of the bankrupt US investment bank Lehman Brothers, led the way down, losing nearly 5 per cent of its value.
French banks Societe Generale, Credit Agricole and BNP Paris were each down between 3.6 and 4 per cent, while insurance giant Axa fell by 3.95 per cent in early-morning trading.
Shares fell 2.1 per cent Friday on the Seoul stock exchange on general recession fears. South Korea's won dropped against the dollar.
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