Banks drag Europe stocks lower; Alcatel-Lucent, BP rise

[MoneyGuy]

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Stocks in Europe opened lower on Tuesday following the financials-led battering on Wall Street and Merrill Lynch's plan to raise $8.5 billion, with UBS dropping 7% and the Royal Bank of Scotland falling over 5%. Investors reacted favorably to the news that Serge Tchuruk and Patricia Russo were quitting Alcatel-Lucent , as the French-American telecom equipment maker rose 4%, and BP and SAP both rose following their second-quarter reports. The U.K. FTSE 100 dropped 0.8% to 5,268 and the French CAC 40 fell 1% to 4,282.

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