Stocks reversed gains and struggled Wednesday amid rising fears following the European Central Bank's lending activity and subpar earnings results.
The FTSE 100 index closed down 30 points or 0.6% at 5,390, while the FTSE 250 index dipped 25 points or 0.3% to settle at 9,843. Continental markets suffered worse, with France's CAC 40 down 0.8% and Germany's DAX 1.0% weaker by close of play.
The ECB, as part of its longer-term refinancing operation, granted a total of EUR 489 billion in funds to 523 EU banks, considerably higher than the expected three-year financing allotment of EUR 310 billion. Although there are hopes the high levels of demand could alleviate the eurozone debt crisis as banks would likely lend more, concerns spread through the markets that banks might not necessarily use the funds to reduce sovereign debt difficulties and that the loans do not solve the fundamental financial problems in Europe.
Meanwhile, existing-home sales in the United States increased by 4.0% last month, doubling the expected 2.0% month-over-month increase. However, making bigger headlines was the 14% downward revision that the housing market saw from 2007 to 2010. Home sales were revised to include U.S. Census data. The new data showed that 2008, the worst year during the recession, saw a 16% downward revision in sales, and for the first 10 months of 2011 there were more than 700,000 fewer sales than previously estimated.
On the FTSE 100, banks had led the market higher in earrly deals by gains the ECB news ate into gains, with Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) closing 5.6% higher but its peers all ending in the red.
Elsewhere on the top line, the U.S. housing sector news bolstered Wolseley (WOS) and CRH (CRH), which closed up 2.1% and 2.6%, respectively. The latter was recently added to the U.K. large-cap index; Morningstar analysts think the Irish construction firm may be headed for additional slower growth periods, but they expect the company to continue to pay dividends (trailing 12-month yield of 5%), and believe management's recent track record has positioned CRH well to capture the upside in a rebound in construction activity. Read the report here.
On the downside, tech stocks were under pressure following disappointing results from U.S. firm Oracle (ORCL) overnight. Second-quarter adjusted earnings-per-share and sales totals came in below expectations. Morningstar analysts noted that despite some positive takeaways from the quarter, Oracle management acknowledged some difficulties ahead for the firm. In London, ARM Holdings (ARM) lost 2.0% and Sage Group (SGE) shed 2.4%.
Essar Energy (ESSR) was the main casualty, however, down 3.4% after announcing Chairman Ravi Ruia will temporarily step down from his position at the helm of the board while he faces potential charges over his alleged involvement in the Indian telecommunications scandal.