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Bourses shrug off euro woe
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June 2, 1999: 8:27 a.m. ET
Falling currency fails to ignite sell-off among European stocks
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LONDON (CNNfn) - More humiliation for the single currency was shrugged off by European stock markets by mid-session Wednesday, although gains were generally muted.
The euro hit a new low against the dollar of 1.0342 earlier Wednesday, after a key meeting of the European Central Bank. The ECB's governors decided against altering rates at the meeting, much as economists had predicted.
Stocks were relatively unperturbed however, with all the major markets climbing back into positive territory after early session losses.
S&P futures on the Globex trading system indicated a flat open for U.S. markets later Wednesday, further boosting sentiment in Europe.
London's FTSE 100 jumped 1 percent, 95 points, to 6,313.3. Germany's Xetra Dax gained 0.5 percent to 5,033.68.
France's CAC 40 inched just 12 points ahead to 4,325.60, while Zurich's SMI rose 80 points to 6,958.2.
London trading was dominated by a 5 percent surge in SmithKline Beecham (SB). Vague talk of a merger boosted the shares.
Other stocks on the move included engineer Invensys (ISYS), which jumped more than 5 percent after posting a 13.5 percent rise in operating profit to 998 million pounds ($1.6 billion) for the year to March.
Supermarket operator J. Sainsbury (SBRY), Britain's second-largest food retailer, jumped almost 2.2 percent to 389 pence after posting a 4 percent rise in full-year profit to 756 million pounds ($1.21 billion). The firm said it will cut 1,100 jobs in a bid to revive the its flagging fortunes in the face of intensifying competitive pressures in the sector. In April, rival retailers Asda Group (ASSD) and Kingfisher (KGF) unveiled tie-up plans.
In Paris, stocks traded in a tight range, with financial stocks such as BNP (PBNP) and Société Générale (PGLE) making modest headway. Insurer Axa (PCS) gained 2 percent to 114.4 euros.
A 9.5 percent jump in unit sales during the first five months of the year helped Volkswagen's (FVOW) stock move 1.5 percent higher, dragging rivals DaimlerChrysler and BMW (FBMW) with it.
The major casualty among Frankfurt blue chips was software group SAP [FSE:FSAP3], which dipped 2 percent in sympathy with U.S. tech stocks overnight. 
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