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Bourses tugged down
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February 10, 1999: 5:46 a.m. ET
Worries of a correction on Wall St. pull Europe back; BSkyB soars
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Wall Street's slippery slope stretched to Europe by midmorning Wednesday, as bourses nosed deeper into the red.
After drifting lower at the open, London's FTSE 100 index extended its losses to trade down 0.95 percent at 5,724.9. In Paris, the CAC-40 index of leading components shed 1.37 percent of its value, or 55.48 euros, to 3,983.01.
Germany's electronically-traded Xetra Dax sank nearly 1 percent, to 4,806.70.
Concern in Frankfurt over the general economic outlook, and higher German bond yields continued to weigh on market morale.
Worries that U.S. interest rates could be heading higher in the near future was also clouding investor thinking. Such anxiety contributed to Tuesday's nearly 4 percent drop in the blue-chip Dax.
Carmaker BMW (FBMW) gave up 14.0 euros to 703. Its biggest shareholder, Germany's Quandt family, said it will not give up their stake, thought to be about 45 percent. A spokesman for the dynasty was interviewed on German television.
On Tuesday, BMW pledged to commit itself to turning around its loss-making U.K. subsidiary, Rover.
In London, investors gave a crystal-clear show of approval to satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting Wednesday. BSkyB is reporting a flying start for its 140-channel Sky Digital Service in the four months following its October launch.
After surging nearly 9 percent at the open, shares of BSkyB (BSY) settled back slightly but were still up more than 6 percent in London at 439 pence.
BSkyB sold 350,000 subscriptions to the digital service through January, including 120,000 who were not already subscribers to the broadcaster's analog service.
British Airways (BAY) was off more than 1 percent at 384-3/4 pence a day after the airline posted its first ever third-quarter pre-tax loss, but voiced confidence about its long-term outlook.
British Telecommunications (BT.A) was off 0.44 percent at 900 pence.
Industrial unrest in the metal industry continued to have a spillover effect, with Thyssen (FTHY) shares slipping 5 points to 174.00 euros.
German banking stocks were having an equally rocky go of things early Wednesday. Deutsche Bank (FDBK), was off 0.90 euros at 47.55 the morning after Chairman Rolf Breuer warned that any delay in the settlement of Holocaust claims could thwart the bank's planned $10 billion takeover of U.S.-based Bankers Trust.
In Zurich, Swiss shares shed 0.66 percent, appearing to confound expectations that the index was heading for 6,800 by the end of the day.
In Paris, oil giants Elf Aquitaine (PAQ) and Total (PFP) slipped 3.39 percent and 1.39 percent respectively.
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