LONDON (ShareCast) - So farewell then 2011, it’s been a blast. As we head to the end of the last trading day of the year these are the movements on the main indexes.

Stoxx Europe 600 +0.20%
UK FTSE 100 -0.25%
Germany DAX 30 +0.20%
France CAC 40 +0.24%
Italy FTSE MIB +0.43%
Spain IBEX 35 +0.37%

London will close at 12:30pm today, most trading in Frankfurt will end at 2pm CET.

NEWS

Most markets were up slightly in very light trading. The main news in Europe is a comment from the German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, ruling out a euro-area break up.

In Madrid the Spanish Government is expected to approve a programme of spending cuts, reported to amount to €2.5bn.

One other detail that will have raised investors’ eyebrows is an editorial from the Chinese Xinhua news agency saying Chinese GDP growth will exceed 9% in 2011.

SECTORS

At 11:47am, on the Stoxx Europe 600 index, construction and materials stocks were the biggest risers, up 1.02%. The biggest fallers were utilities, down 0.49%.

COMPANIES

Notable movers included Banco Comercial Portugues which had risen nearly 5% by 12:49 in Lisbon on rumours of a possible investment by Chinese banks.

In Paris, Veolia Environnement, the environmental management firm had jumped 1.6% just before 1pm, closely followed by cement giant Lafarge (+1.3%)

In Frankfurt Heidelberg Cement was the leading riser up 1.2%.

OTHER MARKETS

At 11:51 in London Brent Crude for February delivery was down 0.46% at $107.51

Gold futures gained 1.9% through the morning to hit $1,570.8.

At 1.01pm in Frankfurt one euro was worth $1.2944, down 0.13% on the fix.

BS

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