European stock market watch: The German PMI (purchasing managers index) was better than market expectations, the December final index value was 48.4, higher than the the previous month level of 47.9 and the average forecast of 48.4, while the Markit euro-zone purchasing managers index value added from the previous month level of 46.4, which was the lowest level in the recent 28 months, to 46.9, in line with the previous estimates. However, the euro zone and Germany purchasing managers indexex show these two sets of data are below the level of industry growth of 50 points, which means the shrinking situation of the manufacturing sector is still continuing.
The European stock markets actively rallied with light trading volume under the background of the absence of the London stock market, to ended in the first trading day of 2012, the Pan-European Dow Jones index closed at 247.15 points on Monday with an increase of 1.0%. The index dropped 11.3% to end the 2011 trading last Friday, which was the annual decline for the first time in the three years, as well as the worst performance of the index since 2008.
Franch CAC 40 index advanced 1.98% to end at 3222.30 points. The German DAX 30 index rose 3.00% to close at 6075.52 points. The Spanish IBEX 35 index climbed 1.84% to end at 8723.80 points, while the Portugal PSI 20 index finished at 5611.37 points with a rise of 2.13%. The Financial Times Italian MIB index gained 2.42%, to finish at 15,454.60 points. The Italian 10-year treasury bond yield stabilized on Monday, rose two basis points to 6.88%.
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