Europe's main stock indexes closed mixed Monday, with banking stocks gaining as investors viewed the sector's credit-crunch markdown as overdone, according to AP. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose 0.5 percent to 6,337.9, while France's CAC-40 Index added 0.2 percent to 5,535.56. Germany's DAX Index lost 0.1 percent to 7,806.84. «We think the financials are oversold, both in absolute terms and relative to the rest of the market,» said Ian Scott, an equity strategist at Lehman Brothers in London. Concerns about the subprime market remained close to investors' minds, but some bargain hunters began to dip a toe back into the sector. «Unlike the U.S., investors in Europe have displayed little discrimination in their selling of financial stocks. We think the coming weeks and months will see a more choosey approach as well as a recovery,» Scott said. Germany's Deutsche Postbank rose 8.1 percent after being upgraded to a buy from hold rating by Goldman Sachs, while Italy's UniCredit rose 6.7 percent. The Italian bank reports its earnings Tuesday. Shares in the U.K.'s Barclays jumped 8.1 percent, while Royal Bank of Scotland finished 9.2 percent higher, UBS rose 4.0 percent and Deutsche Bank 2.2 percent. HSBC shares gained 1.0 percent despite a report that it may have to write down another US$1 billion (¤680 million) due to its involvement in the U.S. subprime mortgage market. The Wall Street Journal cited analyst research from Lehman Brothers that the U.S. consumer lending business, HSBC Finance Corp., may need to boost its reserves against souring U.S. home loans by another US$2.4 billion (¤1.63 billion), to a total of US$4.5 billion (¤3.06 billion). The technology sector also came under fire Monday. Credit Suisse equity strategists trimmed their global technology overweight recommendation to 20 percent from 40 percent, saying the sector has outperformed the MSCI World index by 9 percent since May. Nokia shares fell 0.8 percent, Sage closed down 3.8 percent and Siemens was down 1.1 percent. Oil-related stocks fell alongside a pullback in oil prices after Saudi Arabia said that OPEC might raise output to help combat high energy rates. Eni fell 2.1 percent and BP lost 2.0 percent, according to dpa. Basic resource stocks also headed south as copper and gold futures fell sharply on the London Metal Exchange. Vedanta plunged 5.3 percent, with Xstrata down 4.7 percent and Antofagasta down 6.0 percent.
