Greece To Dominate The Markets

  Global share markets eased Friday after a run of six to eight days of rises as the US dollar firmed off the back of increased worries about Greece.The financial pressures on & #160;Greece and the eurozone's struggle to reach & #160;common position on the crisis hit & #160;European stock markets on & #160;Friday, with most & #160;ending lower.The loss of positive sentiment spread to US markets where they ended in the red, but up for the week.Complicating matters in the US markets was the so-called quadruple witching hour when options and other derivatives expire each month, and in this case, quarter.Seven small US banks failed Friday night for a total cost to taxpayers of around & #36;US1.3 billion.Asian markets were positive, however.But investors were spooked after the region shut by & #160;the Reserve Bank of India's move to increase its key lending rate to 5% and its borrowing rate to 3.5%. & #160; & #160;The RBI & #160;lifted the two key rates because inflation is now ahead of its forecast peak of 8.5% (8.89% in the year to February) and now expected to rise past 10% in the next month.The MSCI world equity index fell 0.5% on Friday.In US the Dow & #160;fell 37.19 points, or 0.35%, to 10,741.98. The Standard & #38; Poor's 500 Index eased 5.93 points, or half a per cent & #160;to 1,159.90 and & #160;Nasdaq & #160;dropped 16.87 points, or 0.71%, to 2,374.41.It ended eight straight days of gains for the Dow, which, despite that strength, never added more than 50 points in a day.Last week it rose 1.1% for the third week of gains in a row. The S & #38;P 500 added 0.9% and Nasdaq 0.3%.In Paris the CAC 40 fell 0.3% to 3925.44 on Friday, while in Frankfurt the DAX lost 0.5% to finish at 5982.43.Elsewhere Milan fell 0.4%, Brussels 0.6% and a quarter of a per cent in Switzerland.The & #160;Stoxx 600 Index rose 0.7% for its third weekly rise in a row.12 out of the region's 18 major markets rose: & #160;London was up 0.4% and the & #160;DAX advanced 0.6%.France's & #160;CAC 40 dropped 0.1% and & #160;Greece lost 3.1% for the first loss in three weeks with fears again about the country's weakening financial strength.London's & #160;FSE 100 index managed to defy the trend, adding 0.1% to & #160;5650.13, the highest since & #160;late June 2008.Driving the index higher was the surprise news from & #160;Lloyds Banking Group, which said it expected to & #160;return to profit this year after suffering a loss of more than 7 billion euros in 2009.That helped other financials to rise.But over the weekend the head of the opposition Conservatives, David Cameron, surprised by committing his party to a bank tax if they won the election now expected for early May.He said the tax would be similar to that proposed in the US by president Obama, a move that will send tremors through the banks and other financial stocks tonight.In Asia markets rose for a fourth week.The MSCI Asia Pacific Index climbed 1.4% over the week, with Tokyo's Nikkei up 0.7%, South Korea's Kospi up 0.8%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.8% and Shanghai jumped 1.8%.New York-traded Indian shares fell the most in six weeks on Friday in the wake of the lift in rates.In Australia the & #160;ASX200 index was up 9.1 points, or 0.2%, at 4872.2, while the & #160;All Ordinaries & #160;climbed 12.4 points, or 0.3%, at 4890.1. & #160;  

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