European stocks rallied Friday as traders digested quarterly results from U.S. banking giant Citigroup amid hopes that the worst of the global credit crunch could be over, the AFP reported. Wall Street opened high on Friday as analysts expected following the news from Citigroup.
European stocks started to surge, after Citigroup reported Friday a first-quarter loss of $5.1 billion later than taking $6 billion in write downs related to the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. Wall Street opened high on Friday as analysts expected following the news from Citigroup.
London's FTSE 100 index of leading companies climbed 1.22 percent to 6,053.10 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 added 1.60 percent to 6,788.65 points and in Paris the CAC 40 rose 1.30 percent to 4,925.13 points in early afternoon trade after the release of the Citigroup report.
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of top eurozone shares climbed 1.57 percent to 3,783.80 points. The European single currency stood at $1.5855, after striking a record peak at $1.5984 on Thursday.
The banking titan Citigroup reported a massive $12 billion in write downs. Citigroup took $6 billion in pre-tax write downs and credit costs on subprime related direct exposures.
Results also included write downs of $3.1 billion on funded and unfunded highly leveraged finance commitments; a downward credit value adjustment of $1.5 billion related to exposure to monoline, or municipal bond, insurers; write-downs of $1.5 billion on auction rate securities inventory; and a $3.1- billion increase in credit costs in its global consumer business. |
