Europe: Fall dominated

European stocks closed in red on Tuesday. Measured on the Stoxx 600-index, there was a decrease of 0.5 percent to 270.20. 441 of the index 600 shares fell. The three largest stock markets in Europe closed lower. In Britain, there was a decrease of 0.5 percent and in Germany of 0.8 percent, while shares in France fell by 0.7 percent.

Market participants' attention was directed at the small country in the middle of Europe, Luxembourg, where the EU's 27 finance ministers held a preliminary meeting to the EU Summit 18-19. October. The debt crisis was on the agenda, but there was not much new about it.

Monday the euro zone held finance ministers meeting, where the permanent EU rescue fund, the ESM, was declared operational. At the meeting it was also stated that Spain, which according to rumors is the first country that will seek assistance from the Fund is unable to empty it. When the fund is fully paid in 2014 it will be 500 billion euro.

It does, however, raise some uncertainty and it is not good for the financial shares - and certainly not for the Spanish banking stocks. Therefore, the Spanish crisis bank Bankia were found at the bottom of the Stoxx 600-index with a fall of 9 percent to 98 cents.

At the bottom was also the British hotel chain Intercontinental Hotels with a fall of 7.3 percent to 1642 pence. The reason, however, primarily the technicality since the company traded ex-dividend Tuesday.

The third largest decrease occurred in the French telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent, which fell more than 5 percent to 74 cents on the Paris stock exchange without specific news.

At the top of Stoxx 600 closed the British recruitment company Hays Plc, which rose 5.7 percent to 79.5 pence. It happened after a financial statement, reporting generally stable markets wherever the company operates. The company was also lifted by financial house Seymour Pierce to "buy" from "hold".