Euro dips but European shares gain on Spanish deal

LONDON: Limited progress at a euro zone finance ministers meeting
left the single currency near a two-year low on Tuesday, while oil fell
$2 a barrel after a slowdown in China's imports fuelled anxiety about
the global economy.
But European shares ended four straight
sessions of losses, inching up 0.2 percent to 1032.12 points led by
banks, after the finance chiefs ratified a deal to rescue Spanish
lenders.
The euro zone ministers agreed to grant Spain an extra
year until 2014 to reach its deficit reduction targets and set the
parameters of an aid package for Madrid's ailing banks. But they made
no apparent progress on how the bloc's new rescue fund, the ESM, will
be used to intervene in bond markets.
"With the (euro zone)
finance ministers' meeting out of the way without proving to be a
source of inspiration for risk assets, the focus of the market now
turns to the German constitutional court," said Chris Weston, an
institutional dealer with IG Markets.
The German court is due to
give its preliminary ruling on the complaints against the European
Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the euro zone's fiscal compact, which may
ultimately lead to a further implementation delay.
The euro, which hit a two-year low of $1.2225 on Monday, fell 0.1 percent to $1.2298.
Brent
was down 1.8 percent at $98.51 a barrel with worries over supply
disruptions also easing as a labour strike in Norway's oil industry
ended. - Reuters