|
||||||||
  |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Autos drive Europe lower
LONDON, England (CNN) -- European markets ended lower on Wednesday, led by automotive stocks, despite a slight lift to markets at midday on Wall Street. London's FTSE 100 was down 0.14 percent to 4,090.6, the CAC 40 blue chip index in Paris lost 0.75 percent to 3,153.50 and Frankfurt's electronically traded Xetra Dax fell 1.5 percent to 3,158.9 in late trading (the German markets were set to close at 1900 GMT). The pan-European FTSE Eurotop 300, a broader index of the region's largest stocks, was down 0.4 percent. Automakers were hit hard because of faulty car models at Daimler Chrysler (FDCX), which fell 3.7 percent to 32.40 euros. The world's third-biggest carmaker may have to recall as many as 1 million vehicles because of seat belt malfunctions, Reuters reported. France's Peugeot (PUG) dropped 2.3 percent to 43.30 euros. German electronic component maker Epcos (FEPC) sank 2.5 percent to 13.81 euros after Merrill Lynch lowered its 2003 earnings forecast saying it didn't expect a meaningful recovery in the second half of next year. Sodexho Alliance (PSW), the world's second biggest contract caterer, fell 4.6 percent to 24.41 euros after Schroder Salomon Smith Barney downgraded its stock to "underperform" from "in-line," saying it was trading 20 percent above the bank's 21-euro price target. Britain's mmO2 (OOM), Europe's fifth-largest mobile phone operator, fell 3.7 percent to 51.50 pence. J.P. Morgan suggested investors sell the stock to make a profit on gains following a jump in first-half core earnings announced on Tuesday. Embattled media giant Vivendi Universal (PEX) gained 1.9 percent to 11.4 euros after it said late on Wednesday that its three-year mandatory convertible bond placing had been raised by 115.5 million euros to the full one-billion euros offered. Its utility unit Vivendi Environnement was up 2.2 percent to 22.90 euros on a report that French state-owned Electricite de France is buying a 4 percent stake in the company. British oil company Hays (HAS) gained 7.8 percent to 89.5 pence after its chief executive said on Wednesday the firm might be broken up. The AEX index in Amsterdam was down 0.43 percent, the SMI in Zurich slid 0.7 percent and Milan's MIB30 index fell 0.3 percent. In the U.S. on Wednesday, a bounce in semiconductor stocks gave the Nasdaq composite a lift, but concerns that the previously strong housing market may be slowing and a lack of new corporate news put a cap on any potential gains in the broader market. The Nasdaq composite was up 23.17 to 1397.68, while the Dow Jones industrial average was up 46.96 to 8521.74 and Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 6.22 to 902.96.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
