It’s becoming a case of “your guess is as good as the next guy’s” in world financial markets now. Share prices are fluctuating like unseasonal temperatures and nobody can really predict what might happen next. French markets rallied earlier, but as soon as they did, rumours that BNP Paribas may face another €500 million loss on Greek debt surfaced.

At around lunchtime, French bank shares began to feel the pinch again and lost virtually any gains made this morning after yesterday’s losses.

New fears that BNP Paribas might face another Greek investment loss totalling some €500 million began to do their rounds in the rumour mill and before anyone really knew what was going on, BNP Paribas lost about six percent.

Société Générale, France’s second-biggest bank, lost more than a fifth of its stock exchange value at one point yesterday afternoon and itself shed nearly eight percent on the new rumours.

Yesterday’s losses were sparked by fears that Société Générale was in serious financial difficulty and had held an emergency meeting with France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, as France itself faced rumours that it could be stripped of its AAA credit rating.

Amid all of this, The Swiss Franc weakened after Swiss central bank Vice President, Thomas Jordan, said a temporary peg of the currency is part of the bank’s repertoire of measures it may use as policy makers struggle to control onlineusadrugstore investors piling into the Franc.

Jordan said in an interview this morning:

Any temporary measures to influence the exchange rate are permissible under our mandate as long as these are consistent with long-term price stability.

Even though President Philipp Hildebrand has indicated the central bank probably won’t give up its sovereignty this easily, some economists feel pegging the currency against the Euro temporarily may be becoming more and more realistic.

Traditionally investors from all walks of life have sought to stick a little away in the Swiss Banks when troubled waters arise, but maybe the Swiss need to consider themselves now.

The Swiss Franc has gained some 30 percent in value against the Euro this year and Jordan told reporters earlier this month that:

A fixed and permanent peg of the franc to the euro isn’t compatible with our constitutional and legal mandate to conduct an independent monetary and exchange rate policy.

If it did happen, it would be a significant move as it would be the first time that such a measure would have taken place since 1973 when the Bretton Woods currency system was abandoned.

With some 50 percent of Swiss GDP coming from exports alone, Nestle, the world’s largest food company based in Vevey, Switzerland, quietly chose to mention yesterday that the Franc’s strength stripped 14 percent off its first-half sales growth for this year.

[Sources: Bloomberg, Business Insider, Guardian]