European and Asia-Pacific region markets were lower Friday as banks declined on concerns about how more stringent banking regulations will affect banks’ profitability and how soon the banks will have to comply with new regulations.
In London, the FTSE 100 was down 0.4 percent to 5,196.81 while the FTSE 250 dropped 0.64 percent to 8,999.08.
The biggest gainer in London was generator rental company Aggreko (LSE: AGK), which added 7.85 percent on the 250, while over on the 100 property investor Liberty International (LSE: LII) and satellite communications group Inmarsat (LSE: ISAT) tied for the best performance on the 100 as each gained 1.77 percent.
Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY) led declines in the London banking sector, falling 4.7 percent for the worst performance of the day on the 100, while Barclays Bank (LSE: BARC) dropped 3.51 percent.
The travel and leisure sector was mixed, with gainers led by Avis Europe (LSE: AVE), which added 5.68 percent on the 250 while cruise line operator Carnival (LSE: CCL) dropped 3.1 percent on the 100 and pubs operator Punch Taverns (LSE: PUB) was the worst performer in the sector, falling 6.5 percent on the 250.
The worst performance of the day in London came from private equity and investment management group SVG Capital (LSE: SVI), which dropped 6.69 percent.
The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.41 percent to 1,014.03 while the Dax fell 0.23 percent to 5,831.21, the IBEX was 0.44 percent lower to 11,645 and the CAC-40 dropped 0.95 percent to 3,794.44.
Credit Agricole (Euronext: ACA), Commerzbank (FWB: CBK) and Deutsche Bank (FWB: DBK) were among the European banks seeing declines on the session.
Most markets in the Asia-Pacific region saw declines, but Taiwan’s Taiex added 0.15 percent to 7,753.63.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 was down 0.21 percent to 10.142.05 and the Topix index fell 0.3 percent to 893.59, but the Mothers market added 1.52 percent to 405.64.
Banks were lower in Tokyo after the Bank of Japan held interest rates at 0.1 percent and after the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision said that banks need to improve the quality of their capital by the end of 2012.
Earlier, it had been reported in Japanese media that banks would have 10 years to implement more stringent banking regulations to be promulgated by the Committee, sending banks higher in recent days.
Mitsubishi UFJ (TYO: 8306) was down 0.4 percent while Mizuho Financial Group (TYO: 8411) fell 3.2 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (TYO: 8316) dropped 4.9 percent.
Elsewhere in the region, the Kospi was 0.05 percent lower to 1,647.04 in South Korea while the Straits Times Index was down 0.38 percent to 2,802.59.
In Australia, the Sydney Ordinaries also fell 0.38 percent, to 4,671.9 and the S&P/ASX200 dropped 0.42 percent to 4,650.5, while the Hang Seng was down 0.8 percent to 21,175.88 in Hong Kong, India’s Sensex was 1.03 percent lower to 16,719.83 and the Shanghai Composite dropped 2.05 percent to 3,113.89.
In midday trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.08 percent lower to 10,300.1 while the Nasdaq Composite had added 0.87 percent to 2,199.08 and the S&P 500 was up 0.2 percent to 1,098.28.
The Nasdaq was helped by positive profits reports from software group Oracle (NAS: ORCL) and from Research in Motion (NAS: RIMM), which makes the BlackBerry.
Crude oil prices were higher in New York, while metals prices were mixed.
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