LONDON, Nov 19: Europe’s stock markets stumble on Monday at the start of a new trading week, after a difficult start for Asian share prices as concerns linger about the impact of the credit crunch on the world economy.

In late morning trade, London’s FTSE 100 index of leading companies fell 0.19 per cent to 6,279.10 points, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 lost 0.17 per cent to 7,599.61 points and in Paris the CAC 40 gained 0.25 per cent to reach 5,537.57.

In London, the share price of Northern Rock tumbled almost a quarter in value after the beleaguered British bank said takeover proposals received undervalued the company.

Northern Rock shares slumped 23 per cent to 102.10 pence after revealing that approaches from potential suitors were “materially below” its market value worth 559 million pounds (782.5m euros, $1.145 billion) at the end of last week.

Northern Rock, once Britain’s eighth-biggest bank, revealed in September that the global credit crunch had forced it to seek emergency support from the Bank of England.

Investors are looking at a weaker US market tonight after what happened to Asia, said Tsuyoshi Segawa, an equity strategist at Shinko Securities in Japan.

Sydney bucked the trend, ending up 1.1 per cent after drawing some solace from Wall Street’s positive close on Friday.

The US market has been all over the place in recent days, so the fact we have recovered as strong as I think is a pretty good performance, said Andrew Sekely, the head of Australian equities at Intersuisse.

Dealers said Australia was also driven by bullish sentiment on resources, with BHP Billiton’s bold takeover bid for Rio Tinto to create a 350 billion dollar international mining behemoth still on centre stage.

On Friday, a surge in the last half-hour of trade wiped away early losses to push the Dow and the Nasdaq higher.

Investors are waiting for US housing reports, the cornerstone of a wave of economic data out in this week shortened in the US because of the Thanksgiving holiday.—AFP