| CATEGORY: MARKET REPORT - EUROPE CLOSE SECTOR: INDUSTRIALS |
Europe close: Mixed day for markets |
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Tue 09 Feb 2010
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LONDON (SHARECAST) - European markets were mixed, with Germany and France advancing while Italy and Switzerland headed lower.
Investors were preoccupied for most of the day with speculation over why European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet left a meeting of central bankers in Australia early to attend a special European Union summit later this week.
Speculation was that EU leaders will address the euro zone’s debt problems at the informal gathering on Thursday, with an aid package for heavily indebted Greece on the agenda. Late in the afternoon a rumour emerged that the euro zone countries have agreed in principal to offer aid to Greece.
Across the markets, the German DAX was up 13 points at 5,498, while the French CAC reversed earlier losses to close 5 points firmer at 3,612. The Swiss market index dipped 322 points to 6,314.
Swiss bank UBS posted its first quarterly profit for more than a year, but client withdrawals continued to rise.
The bank posted a net profit of 1.21bn Swiss francs in the three month ended 31 December, thanks to lower costs and a 480m francs US tax credit. In the same period last year, UBS reported a net loss of 9.58bn francs.
Chief executive Oswald Gruebel said he was confident that the bank's positive performance would continue but added that withdrawals will continue in the immediate future.
Share in UBS moved lower but a number of other banking shares did well, including Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank in Frankfurt and BNP Paribas and Societe Generale in Paris; the latter was upgraded to ‘add’ from ‘neutral’ by WestLB.
Swatch Group is in the blue after the Swiss watch makers reported a better-than-expected half-year profit.
In France, car makers Renault and Peugeot were heartened by Japanese motor vehicle manufacturer Nissan predicting it would return to profit in the current financial year.
Supermarket giant Carrefour was wanted after Morgan Stanley rated the shares ‘overweight’. Broker comment also lifted steel tube maker Vallourec, with JP Morgan upgrading the stock to ‘overweight’ from ‘neutral’.
Disappointing profits guidance for fiscal 2011 from US computer games publisher Electronic Arts knocked its French counterpart Ubisoft.
The biggest faller in Paris, however, was shopping centre developer Unibaul-Rodamco, which announced a 2009 net loss of €1.47bn, versus a loss of €1.12bn the year before, after taking a €2.19bn hit on property values.
In Frankfurt, truck maker Man was wanted after UBS issued a positive research note on the stock.
Database software giant SAP, however, fell back after the company, which this week parted ways with chief executive officer Leo Apotheker, admitted its drive to shift all of its customers to a single, pricier enterprise support plan had been a mistake, and that the company needs to win back the trust of its customers.
CAC 40 - Risers
Vallourec (VK) € 126.10 +2.65%
Technip (TEC) € 49.81 +2.42%
Saint Gobain (SGO) € 32.99 +2.39%
ArcelorMittal SA (MT) € 28.59 +2.11%
Renault (RNO) € 33.31 +2.05%
Societe Generale (GLE) € 39.56 +1.96%
BNP Paribas (BNP) € 48.31 +1.81%
Peugeot (UG) € 22.31 +1.64%
Michelin (ML) € 53.71 +1.51%
Alstom (ALO) € 47.22 +1.21%
CAC 40 - Fallers
Unibail-Rodamco (UL) € 144.80 -6.04%
ST Microelectronics (STM) € 5.81 -1.54%
EADS (EAD) € 13.81 -1.46%
Pernod Ricard (RI) € 55.64 -0.98%
Total (FP) € 40.53 -0.88%
Veolia Environnement (VIE) € 23.05 -0.77%
Dexia (DEXB) € 4.18 -0.71%
Suez Environnement Company (SEV) € 15.72 -0.63%
Air Liquide (AI) € 77.71 -0.63%
GDF Suez (GSZ) € 26.32 -0.62%
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