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Bourses' strength fades
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December 7, 1998: 12:45 p.m. ET
Early gains in Europe evaporate as buyers remain scarce
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Early optimism in Europe faded by the close of Monday's trading session, leaving most markets roughly where they started the day.
Investors seemed determined to put behind them the lackluster showing in the previous week. Markets were spurred onward by gains Friday in New York and a surge overnight Monday in Hong Kong.
That optimism evaporated however, and by mid-session the major indexes had retraced all their early gains.
Germany's Xetra DAX suffered the most, tumbling 1.7 percent, or 81.59 points, to close at 4,721.17.
In London, the FTSE 100 eased just 5.2 points to close near its low for the session at 5,576.7.
Switzerland's SMI ended the day in positive territory, after posting a 0.5 percent gain to 6,859.0 points. France's CAC 40 also gained, ending Monday at 3,771.22, a rise of 32.63 points, or 0.9 percent.
Glasgow-based ScottishPower (SPW) finally announced its long-awaited move into the U.S. The $7.8 billion takeover of PacifiCorp (PPW) got a chilly response in London, though. ScottishPower stock tumbled 10 percent to 639 pence.
Brewer and leisure group Scottish & Newcastle (SCTN) suffered in advance of its first-half figures, due Tuesday. The shares eased more than 5 percent to 718 pence.
IT stock Misys (MSY) slipped more than 3 percent to 406 pence, on reports the group may be bumped from the FTSE 100 index.
Hopes of consolidation in the defense industry sparked gains in British Aerospace (BA.) stock. The shares rose 3 percent to 515 pence.
Engineer GKN (GKN) announced a $558 million deal to buy Interlake (IK) in the U.S., but its shares were unmoved at 681 pence.
Frankfurt stocks slipped on general disillusion with corporate prospects.
Cyclical earners made some headway on bargain hunting.
Steel maker Thyssen (FTHY) rose 2.25 marks to 298.25 as its merger with Krupp (FFKR) received formal shareholder approval.
Engineer MAN (FMAN) rose 15.6 marks to 488.8 marks.
UBS was the highlight of a dull day in Zurich. Speculation the bank is about to sell its trade finance unit boosted the shares 4 francs to 391.5 francs, after earlier touching 399.5 francs.
French defense electronics group Lagardere (PMMB) took off on the same consolidation hopes that fired British Aerospace shares. Lagardere stock gained 6 percent to 220 francs. Thomson-CSF (PHO) also joined in the speculation, but its shares ended the session unchanged at 202 francs. 
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