Frankfurt DAX: European bourses paused for breath at mid-session yesterday after stock markets in London, Paris and Frankfurt earlier hit record highs.
Shares in Frankfurt gave up most of their gains, despite futures trading suggested the Dow which finished slightly lower at 9,234 after Tuesday's record close would open 25-30 points higher.
Shares in Siemens rocketed despite disappointing earnings in the nine months to June, as the German engineering giant promised a range of measures to boost profitability.
Analysts said the stock market shrugged off disappointment at a rise of only 5 per cent in group net profit in the nine months to June. compared with a 15 per cent increase in sales as well as a warning that full-year earnings won't rise faster than sales as had been forecast.
Paris CAC-40: After a morning of headline gains, French stocks slowed at the close in line with the sluggish performance on Wall Street. The CAC-40 index hit a record high of 4386.22 in mid-morning as Wednesday's surge of World Cup trading fever powered further gains. But the market ran out of steam in afternoon trading as investors pocketed their profits.
Renault said it increased the number of cars and commercial vehicles sold in the first half of this year by 16.8 per cent from the figure for the same period last year. The company increased its shares of a growing European market for cars by 0.9 points to 10.3 per cent, Renault said, describing this as the biggest increase of market share achieved by any manufacturer.
Milan Mibtel: The Milan market ended slightly firmer, but off the session highs in line with other international markets.
Pirelli stole the limelight, rising almost 6 per cent after announcing it had agreed to buy Siemens's power cables business for 500 million deutschmarks.
Banking stocks held up well with Banca di Roma up 2.7 per cent and Banca Commerciale Italiana up 1.4 per cent. Aeroporti di Roma was 3 per cent lower after Tuesday's big gains following recent underperformance. ENI was marginally lower after its recent oil find off Angola, while Fiat was firmer after chairman, Mr Paolo Fresco said that the group was open to alliances.
