LONDON (ShareCast) - Most major European stock markets saw big declines on Thursday as the President of the European Central Bank (ECB) failed to convince investors he has a coherent plan to ease the sovereign debt crisis.

Last week Mario Draghi said he would do “whatever it takes to preserve the euro”. Expectations were high for something concrete following a meeting of the governing council of the ECB today in Frankfurt but following that meeting Draghi offered nothing the market could hang its hat on.

He did, again, suggest the ECB would cooperate with Eurozone governments to buy bonds but it wasn’t clear exactly how this would work. For investors, buoyed by hopes of direct intervention in the distressed sovereign bond market, this was a significant disappointment.

The ECB’s key interest rate was kept at 0.75% and, until a plan emerges, the market will have to live with the most emphatic of Draghi’s comments: that high bond yields “need to be addressed in a fundamental manner”.

Banks battered

Disappointment with Mario Draghi caused a sell off of bank stocks. The sector was the weakest on the Stoxx Europe 600, falling 2.88%.

Amongst the biggest declines was the Spanish lender Santander and German outfit, Deutsche Bank.

The huge French utility firm Veolia Environnement took a bath after write-downs on its Italian business.

Other markets

The euro had dropped 0.64% against the dollar by 16:56 to sit at $1.2147.


CAC 40 - Risers
GDF Suez (GSZ) € 18.40 +0.60%

CAC 40 - Fallers
Veolia Environnement (VIE) € 8.15 -11.66%
ArcelorMittal SA (MT) € 11.90 -8.77%
Credit Agricole (ACA) € 3.30 -7.59%
Societe Generale (GLE) € 16.89 -6.71%
Peugeot (UG) € 5.88 -6.28%
Vivendi (VIV) € 14.97 -5.25%
Vinci (DG) € 32.24 -4.57%
AXA (CS) € 9.65 -4.12%
BNP Paribas (BNP) € 29.48 -3.99%
Renault (RNO) € 34.41 -3.88%


BS

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