World Stocks Climb on Yeltsin, U.S. News
Boris N. Yeltsin’s reelection as president of Russia and a decision the by United States to leave its interest rates unchanged pushed most world stock markets stocks higher Thursday, but the reaction was muted by the Independence Day trading holiday in the U.S.
The dollar ended mostly higher, and gold fell.
The Russian and Polish bourses posted strong gains, helping to lift other stock markets. London’s FTSE 100 share index closed up 46.5 points at 3760.6, the DAX index in Frankfurt rose 8.44 points to 2,577.39 and the CAC 40 index in Paris closed at 2126.81, up 12.83 points. However, the Mexican Bolsa fell for the second day in a row, to 3174.88 points.
Skidding platinum prices Thursday livened up otherwise dull commodity markets. Heavy selling in London platinum steered prices to more than two-year lows of $387.25 an ounce, just days after news of a strike at South Africa’s Amplats Rustenburg platinum mine had propped them up.
“The market may have gotten itself a bit long on the back of the Rustenburg strike,” one trader said.
Platinum prices, down from a high of $435 an ounce in February, are reflecting plentiful supplies, traders said. However, by the close of business on Thursday, the price had pared some early losses to close off $2.75 at $389.25 an ounce.
Shares of French pharmaceuticals company L’Oreal rose on rumors that Swiss company Nestle would buy the 51% of the company held by L’Oreal’s founding Bettencourt family. Both Nestle and L’Oreal refused to comment on the rumors.
L’Oreal rose 38 French francs to 1,658 francs in Paris. Nestle’s rose 19 Swiss francs to 1,468 francs, pushing the Swiss stock market generally higher.
But Tokyo stocks drifted lower in thin trading, with the Nikkei index of 225 selected issues dropping 86.11 points to 22,292.91.
Meanwhile, the dollar rose against the German mark and British sterling, as investors sold them in favor of higher-yielding European currencies such as the Italian lira. The dollar also firmed against the yen, recovering in Europe after a bout of profit-taking during Asian trading.
In London late Thursday, the dollar was trading at 110.395 yen, up from 110.375 in New York late Wednesday. It was trading at 1.5245 marks, up from 1.505. The British pound sterling bought 1.558 dollars, down from 1.566.
