European markets steady as China rises

As turmoil in Chinese markets batters stock prices around the world, Germany has been taking a bigger beating than most. US crude also fell over 3 percent, trading around $32.75.

China’s main stock markets have closed with gains of over 2% after the authorities suspended so-called circuit breakers, introduced to prevent sharp falls on markets. Daimler lost 3.5 per cent after its chief financial officer said it won’t spin off its commercial-vehicles unit, according to Boerse-Online.

“Equity markets are continuing their steep losses… with investor sentiment being pressured by various factors”, said Lukman Otunuga, research analyst at trading group FXTM.

Earlier Thursday, Beijing’s securities regulator cut off trading just 14 minutes after business opened as the Shanghai Composite Index fell more than 7 percent.

Unsurprisingly, oil and gas stocks were some of the worst hit. It was still down about 5 percent so far this week – its worst week since late August.

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) again surprised markets by setting the official mid-point rate on the yuan, also known as the renminbi (RMB), at 6.5646 per dollar, the lowest since March 2011.

Anglo American (London Stock Exchange: AAL-GB) was the STOXX 600’s worst performer, down over 10 percent. Investors digested also monthly factory PMI reports from the euro zone’s biggest economies.

Volkswagen AG (VOW.XE) (VOW.XE) dropped 4.4% after the U.S. Justice Department on Monday filed a lawsuit (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-files-suit-against-volkswagen-over-emissions-scandal-2016-01-04) against the German auto maker, alleging it installed illegal emissions defeat devices in almost 600,000 diesel-engine vehicles.

In the eurozone, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 climbed 0.6% and the Paris CAC 40 won 0.1%.

Tesco climbed about 5 percent on a positive broker recommendation. Hong Kong was 1 percent higher, having also swung from as much as 0.9 percent up to 0.7 percent down.

There were some bright spots however.

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