European shares flat in early trade
European shares were flat early on Tuesday as persistent concerns about tight financial markets negated positive sentiment stemming out of weaker crude prices and Washington's bailout of the top mortgage finance companies.
Hopes for stimulus rise after ECB softens toneAt 8:18 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares was up just 0.01 percent at 1,162.80 points after closing 3.3 percent higher on Monday. The benchmark is down 23 percent this year, battered by a credit crisis that has hit bank stocks especially hard.
Stocks markets worldwide rose sharply on Monday, powered by financials as investors applauded the U.S. government's move to rescue mortgage financiers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But Asian shares lost ground on Tuesday on renewed uncertainty over the global economy and financial markets.
"(There is some) realisation that all are still not well. It is the final admission by the U.S. Treasury that there is a problem which still has not been solved," said Justin Urquhart Stewart, director at Seven Investments.
The banking sector was among the top weighted losers on the FTSEurofirst 300, with Lloyds TSB down 1.6 percent, HBOS falling 1 percent, Standard Chartered Bank slipping 0.7 percent and Barclays down 0.5 percent.
Miners fell tracking weaker metals prices, with BHP Billiton, Anglo American, Lonmin, Kazakhmys, Xstrata, Antofagasta and Rio Tinto falling between 0.7 and 2.4 percent.
(Reporting by Atul Prakash, additional reporting by Joanne Frearson)
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