LONDON, Nov 27: European stock markets mostly fell onTuesday after fresh worries about the fallout from the US subprime loan crisis battered Wall Street overnight, dealers said.

Markets are generally volatile at the moment, a Paris dealer noted.

London’s FTSE 100 index of leading companies dropped 0.39 per cent to 6,156.40 points in late morning trade. Frankfurt’s DAX 30 lost 0.54 per cent to 7,526.27 points and in Paris the CAC 40 shed 0.26 per cent to 5,444.20 nearing the half-way mark.

The European single currency stood at $1.4850.

In London, Britain’s third biggest bank Barclays jumped 4.12 per cent to 517.5 pence after saying it expects in-line annual earnings, as robust growth in retail and business services offsets losses caused by the US housing crisis.

Earlier this month, Barclays announced hefty losses linked to the subprime mortgage debacle and consequent global credit crunch.

Barclays said its investment arm, Barclays Capital, took a 1.3-billion-pound (1.8-billion-euro, 2.7-billion-dollar) hit between the start of July and end of October but the liability was far less than had been feared by analysts.

Meanwhile Northern Rock, the embattled British lender set to be saved by British tycoon Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, gained 4.81 per cent to 115.4 pence.

The stock had jumped by more than 57 per cent at one point on Monday, before ending with a gain of 28.17 per cent to 110.10 pence.

In Asia on Tuesday, investors dumped shares as initial optimism about the outlook for the US holiday shopping season gave way to fresh jitters about the impact of recent credit market turmoil on major US banks.

Sydney gave up 0.6 per cent, Singapore fell by 1.5 per cent and Taipei dropped 1.8 per cent

Major markets had been as much as three per cent in the red in early deals after Wall Street’s Dow Jones index lost 1.8 per cent on Monday.

There might be additional subprime loan-related bombs from the US financial sector and the stock market will take a hit every time, said Park.

Media reports had earlier said Citigroup was planning its second round of “large-scale” layoffs in under 12 months.

Meanwhile British bank HSBC announced it was readying up to $35 billion to bail out two funds it manages.—AFP