LONDON (ShareCast) - European stocks came off the top in the afternoon session after disappointing jobless data from the US. US non-farm payrolls rose by 96,000 in August, versus the consensus estimate for a rise of 125,000.

The unemployment rate, meantime, which is calculated from the so-called Household Survey data, fell to 8.1% from 8.3% in July. Economists had thought it would remain unchanged.

However, much of that decrease has to do with a 368,000 person decrease in the size of the active civilian labour force. In fact, employment dropped by 119,000.

Despite US data acting as a wet blanket, markets still closed the day with decent rises, topping up yesterday's gains.

Banks happy to see ECB wave its cheque book

Banks, sitting on tons of sovereign debt they would like to get shot of, were understandably in demand after the European Central Bank's announcement yesterday that it is prepared to buy up sovereign debt of Eurozone countries if asked to do so.

Societe Generale and Credit Agricole topped the tree in Paris, with fellow lender BNP Paribas while in Frankfurt, Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank formed two of the three best performing blue-chips. In Spain, Santander moved up, though not as briskly as its French and German counterparts while Italy's Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena and Portugal's Banco Espirito Santo caught the eye with chunky gains.

Car maker Peugeot revved up, despite its imminent replacement in the CAC 40 index in Paris by Solvay, the chemicals and plastics firm.

Franking machine maker Neopost is missing out on the party after yesterday's second quarter results disappointed.

Courier Deutsche Post also lost its way after the company's largest shareholder offloaded 60m shares.

Other markets

The most widely traded contract for Brent Crude rose 42 cents to $113.91 a barrel, as traders bet that the underwhelming US jobs data would trigger a further round of quantitative easing by the US Federal Reserve.

On the bonds markets no one had much appetite for safe but dull German bonds in the current environment. The yield on the benchmark 10-year bundd fell 4/100 of a percentage point to 1.52%.

DAX - Risers
Commerzbank € 1.39 +6.67%
Infineon Technologies € 5.63 +6.67%
Deutsche Bank € 31.36 +5.25%

DAX - Fallers
Deutsche Post € 15.40 -3.63%
Beiersdorf € 56.86 -1.97%
Henkel € 61.62 -1.39%

CAC 40 - Risers
Societe Generale (GLE) € 24.49 +6.83%
Credit Agricole (ACA) € 5.34 +6.60%
Peugeot (UG) € 6.43 +6.56%
Veolia Environnement (VIE) € 9.24 +6.30%
ArcelorMittal SA (MT) € 12.43 +4.50%
Accor (AC) € 27.10 +4.49%
Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) € 0.93 +4.03%
Alstom (ALO) € 29.99 +3.58%
Saint Gobain (SGO) € 29.25 +2.90%
Bouygues (EN) € 20.56 +2.85%

CAC 40 - Fallers
France Telecom (FTE) € 10.60 -4.68%
Pernod Ricard (RI) € 88.10 -3.30%
L'Oreal (OR) € 97.81 -3.01%
Danone (BN) € 49.63 -2.16%
Essilor International (EI) € 72.37 -2.00%
Sanofi (SAN) € 66.17 -1.42%
EADS (EAD) € 30.19 -1.02%
Safran (SAF) € 28.09 -0.74%
Michelin (ML) € 59.19 -0.65%
Air Liquide (AI) € 96.67 -0.58%

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