|
Europe markets mixed
|
 |
November 30, 2001: 12:32 p.m. ET
Techs lead gains; fallout from Enron drags banks
|
LONDON (CNN) - Europe's major bourses ended the week mixed, with technology stocks making strong gains, but banks and oil stocks down.
London's FTSE 100 slipped 0.09 percent to 5,203.6 and the CAC 40 blue chip index in Paris closing up 0.7 percent to 4,476.06.78, while Frankfurt's electronically traded Xetra Dax rose 1.5 percent to 5007.78.
The pan-European FTSE Eurotop 300, a broader index of the region's largest stocks, ended up 0.7 percent.
Technology shares were the best-performing sector, adding 2.8 percent, while banks and oil stocks slumped, losing more than 0.8 percent each.
Nordic mobile telephony duo Nokia and Ericsson lead gains with Nokia adding 3.1 percent and Ericsson up 4.4 percent.
Software maker SAP (FSAP) climbed 4.2 percent, extending gains from Thursday after it said it had seen an unexpectedly strong recovery in U.S. business since September following a steep drop at the end of the third quarter.
Europe's chipmakers also rallied. The continent's market leader STMicroelectronics rose 2.2 percent while Germany's Infineon added 2.3 percent.
Philips Electronics, Europe's biggest consumer electronics company and third-largest chipmaker, added 1 percent. ARM Holdings (ARM), Europe's biggest chip designer, rose 3.4 percent in London.
Banks were hit from the fallout of crisis-hit U.S. energy trader Enron.
UK bank Abbey National (ANL) fell 5.5 percent after it revealed it had £115 million of exposure to Enron, which is teetering on the brink of one of the biggest collapses in U.S. corporate history.
The European oil sector faltered after the price of crude tumbled overnight as the United Nations Security Council voted unanimously to adopt a U.S.-Russian solution extending the Iraq oil-for-food programme another six months.
Royal Dutch which owns 60 percent of the world's second-largest publicly traded oil company, Royal Dutch/Shell, lost 1.4 percent and sister company Shell Transport & Trading, which owns the remainder of Royal Dutch/Shell, lost 0.4 percent. TotalFinaElf lost 0.6 percent.
French utilities group Vivendi Environnement dropped 4.3 percent after its chairman was quoted as saying the group has cut its 2001 operating profit forecast.
After a weak start, U.S. markets were also mixed. In midday trade, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 19.62 to 9,849.04. The Nasdaq composite shed 0.67 to 1,932.59. The Standard & Poor's 500 dipped 0.33 to 1,139.87. 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
