Lacklustre trading left most European bourses little changed. The continued travails of the euro, which fell to a fresh lifetime low of €1.0006 to the dollar, added an element of uncertainty to the markets. The FTSE Eurobloc 100 eked out a 4.76 point gain to 1,226.05, while the FTSE Eurotop 100 index managed a 15.61 gain to 3,384.29. The FTSE Eurotop 300 settled 6.36 higher at 1,457.10.
Frankfurt pared early gains to close little changed. The Xetra DAX index ended 3.36 better at 5,937.20. Siemens cruised higher following strong results. The shares rose €4.71 or 4.7 per cent to €104.01. Software group SAP advanced €23.10 at €417. Deutsche Telekom, came off 25 cents at €56.40 in spite of an upgrade to "buy" at Merrill Lynch.
Paris closed slightly lower, weighed down by selling pressure on France Telecom and Carrefour. The CAC-40 ended down 27.22 at 5,354.19. France Telecom was the main ballast. The prospect of further deregulation and competition from its domestic rivals pulled shares down €3.60 to €111.50, a fall of more than 3 per cent.
Supermarket group Carrefour was hit by the sale of a 0.7 per cent stake by Spanish bank BBV. Its fall, by €8 to €175, accounted for 15 points of the CAC's decline. Amsterdam saw Anglo-Dutch steel group Corus rise 17 cents or 8.7 per cent to €2.13 in some of the heaviest trading of the session. More than 14 million were traded. Zurich kept its head above water, but closed well off its highs, as some profits were taken in the pharmaceutical sector on news that Novartis and AstraZeneca would merge their agro-chemicals businesses. Novartis closed 20 Swiss francs higher at SFr2,544 (€1,590).
Stockholm closed at an all-time high, led by market heavyweight Ericsson. The all-share general index climbed 66.47 to 4,786.16. Ericsson shares closed up 13.5 Swedish krone at SKr443 (€51.37).
The drug sector, however, was subdued after AstraZeneca announced plans to break off and merge its agro-chemicals division with Swiss drugs company Novartis. AstraZeneca closed down SKr14.5 at Skr374.5 (€43.43).
