LONDON, Jan 25: A global stock market rebound that began in Asia on Friday later ran out of steam in Europe and the United States on fresh concerns about the health of the global financial sector.

European share prices, after moving higher throughout much of the day on hopes a Bush administration stimulus plan might help the United States avoid recession, turned weaker near the end of trading, a turnaround analysts partially attributed to a report from Barclays Capital.

“There was a prediction that banks might need fresh capital in the amount of $143 billion, according to the analysts at Barclays,” said Alice Lhabouz of the management consultants Meeschaert Gestion.

The report said major banks might have to raise capital in that amount to deal with ratings downgrades to bond insurers, known as monolines, that guarantee securities held by some of the banks.

Financial woes at many United States bond insurers in recent weeks have caused headaches for investors worldwide who worry that the credit crisis could worsen should one of

the companies buckle under

an inability to draw new business.

Analysts said fragile equities markets also remained on edge in the aftermath of Thursday’s revelation of a 7.0-billion loss

at French banking giant So-

ciete Generale attributed to fraudulent dealing by a lone trader.

In London the FTSE 100 index shed 0.12pc to close at 5,859 points, while in Paris the CAC 40 fell 0.76pc to end the day at 4,878.12. The Frankfurt the Dax gave up 0.06pc and finished at 6,816.74.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone issues gave up 0.84pc to end the week at 3,777.06.

On Wall Street the Down Jones Industrial Average in early afternoon trade was down 0.28pc at 12,344.44 after a positive opening while the tech-heavy Nasdaq exchange was 0.22pc in negative territory at 2,355.68.—AFP