| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Europe ends off its lows
LONDON, England (CNN) -- European markets ended off their lows Thursday as a flat start on Wall Street helped to cushion the impact of a string of negative corporate news. Markets have fallen for the last four sessions after an Iraq-inspired rally on Monday. London's FTSE 100 fell 1.5 percent to 3,803.3 and the CAC 40 blue chip index in Paris dropped 2.8 percent to 2,808.58, while Frankfurt's electronically traded Xetra Dax was down 1.2 percent to 2,702.34 in late trading (the German markets was set to close at 1900 GMT). The pan-European FTSE Eurotop 300, a broader index of the region's largest stocks, was down 1.8 percent. The information technology, pharmaceutical and auto sub-sectors were among the top decliners. Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, fell 5.8 percent to 13.42 euros after the company announced plans to cut 1,800 jobs due to the weak wireless infrastructure market. (Full story) Rival network sellers were also lower Thursday. Ericsson fell 4.1 percent to 5.90 euros, while Alcatel (PCGE) slipped 0.3 percent to 7.10 euros and Siemens (FSIE) was down 1.1 percent to 40.94 euros in late Frankfurt trading. Meanwhile, French insurer Axa (PCS) fell 6.4 percent to 11.94 euros after it estimated 2002 losses would be nearly double what it originally expected under U.S. accounting rules. It now expects losses of 2.9 billion euros ($3.1 billion). Swiss drug group Roche dropped 5.1 percent to 85.05 Swiss francs after saying sales rose 15 percent, slightly below market expectations. The AEX index in Amsterdam and the SMI in Zurich both fell 2.2 percent, while Milan's MIB30 index dipped 0.7 percent. In the U.S. on Thursday, stocks were lower in midday trading as investors shifted some of their focus away from the remaining fighting in Baghdad and toward the state of the U.S. economy. At 1530 GMT, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 41.45 points to 8156.49, the Nasdaq composite lost 3.27 points to 1353.47 and the S&P 500 index was flat at 865.92.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
