European stock markets commenced trading with mild losses on Tuesday, with banks declining the most, pulling back after six days of gains in a row. The Stoxx Europe 600 index (INDEXSTOXX:SXXP) dropped 0.1% to 279.41, after closing at the maximum level since May 2011 on Monday. The FTSE 100 index (INDEXFTSE:UKX) shed 0.1% to 5,914.60.
HSBC Holdings plc (LON:HSBA), Europe’s biggest bank, decided to pay $1.92 billion to fix US probes of money laundering in the biggest such agreement ever. Shares of HSBC Holdings dropped 0.3% after the bank reached an agreement with US authorities. [article_detail_ad_1]
The agreement comprises a deferred prosecution deal with the US Department of Justice, the London-based bank stated today in a statement. HSBC looks forward to complete an undertaking with the UK Financial Services Authority shortly, it said, without giving specifics.
In Germany, Deutsche Bank AG (FRA:DBK) (NYSE:DB) declined 0.6%, whereas Commerzbank AG (FRA:CBK) slipped 0.7%.
The supervisory board of Deutsche Bank AG, under the management of Paul Achleitner, isn’t planning to start a new investigation into claims that the bank hid billions of dollars of paper losses during the financial crisis, a person having knowledge of the matter informed Wall Street Journal Deutschland.
The DAX 30 index (INDEXDB:DAX), on the other hand, advanced 0.1% to 7,541.53, with Siemens AG shares (FRA:SIE) (NYSE:SI) higher 0.5%.
Siemens AG (SIE) will subject its variety of so-called green products that are central to its development to the same success tests as older businesses as it looks to recover returns, the manager leading the cost cuts stated.