UK Government to Sell Further Stake in Lloyds, Greece Creeps Closer to Possible Default
June 1, 2015 8:58 am
The Shanghai Composite opened strongly in Asia’s Monday session, reversing part of the drop which it suffered last week and closing up by 4.71%; Chinese PMI data came in roughly as expected, whilst raising expectations for more stimulus from the Chinese Central Bank. By contrast, the Nikkei suffered through a sluggish session, closing up only by 0.03%
Over in the UK, the government has announced that it will sell a further portion of its stake in Lloyds Bank within the next year. Left holding over 40% of the bank’s shares after bailing it out during the 2008 financial crisis, staggered sell-offs over the past couple of years have now taken the government’s stake in the bank to below 20%, netting over £10 billion. Lloyd’s share price is currently up by around 1.16%. The FTSE as a whole is currently down by around 0.06%, having given up earlier gains driven by AstraZeneca. The pharmaceutical firm saw its share price rise after releasing data which showed significant results for a lung cancer treatment. Originally up by over 2%, the stock is now up by around 0.7%.
Across in mainland Europe, Greece’s ongoing economic situation is once again looming like a grey cloud on the horizon. There’s a €300 million payment due to be made due to the IMF on Friday, but there’s no indication at this point as to how this will be achieved. The rhetoric between Greece and its creditors is once again being ramped up, with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras accusing ‘some institutional representatives’ of being ‘unreasonable’. On the other side of the fence, an executive board member of the Deutsche Bundesbank has stated that ‘for the Greek banks, it is five minutes to midnight.’ However, the DAX is currently only slightly down, by 0.07%.
The Shanghai Composite opened strongly in Asia’s Monday session, reversing part of the drop which it suffered last week and closing up by 4.71%; Chinese PMI data came in roughly as expected, whilst raising expectations for more stimulus from the Chinese Central Bank. By contrast, the Nikkei suffered through a sluggish session, closing up only by 0.03%
Over in the UK, the government has announced that it will sell a further portion of its stake in Lloyds Bank within the next year. Left holding over 40% of the bank’s shares after bailing it out during the 2008 financial crisis, staggered sell-offs over the past couple of years have now taken the government’s stake in the bank to below 20%, netting over £10 billion. Lloyd’s share price is currently up by around 1.16%. The FTSE as a whole is currently down by around 0.06%, having given up earlier gains driven by AstraZeneca. The pharmaceutical firm saw its share price rise after releasing data which showed significant results for a lung cancer treatment. Originally up by over 2%, the stock is now up by around 0.7%.
Across in mainland Europe, Greece’s ongoing economic situation is once again looming like a grey cloud on the horizon. There’s a €300 million payment due to be made due to the IMF on Friday, but there’s no indication at this point as to how this will be achieved. The rhetoric between Greece and its creditors is once again being ramped up, with Greek PM Alexis Tsipras accusing ‘some institutional representatives’ of being ‘unreasonable’. On the other side of the fence, an executive board member of the Deutsche Bundesbank has stated that ‘for the Greek banks, it is five minutes to midnight.’ However, the DAX is currently only slightly down, by 0.07%.
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