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Bourses close mostly down
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April 12, 1999: 12:56 p.m. ET
Wall Street rebound after Compaq alert helps lift Europe off lows; Dax up
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Heartened by an early Wall Street recovery, Europe's major markets bounced off their early lows Monday but ended largely in the minus column after a nail-biting day spent wondering how much damage the Dow would incur after Friday's profit warning by Compaq Computer Corp.
After sliding more than 70 points in the first 30 minutes of trade, the Dow clambered back up. By the London close, Wall Street's benchmark gauge was down only 1 point.
Cheered by the rebound, the FTSE 100 pared early losses to close half a percentage point lower, at 6,441.2. Traders attributed the drop -- the index's second in the past 11 sessions -- to consolidation in the wake of a recent run-up that saw the FTSE 100 shatter the 6,500 barrier Friday, capping a week littered with intraday highs.
Among U.K. stocks, Kwik-Fit Holdings (KWFT), Europe's largest independent auto repair chain, led the day's gainers, soaring 117 pence, or 27.8 percent, after Ford Motor Co. (F) agreed to purchase the company for one billion pounds ($1.63 billion).
In Frankfurt, the only major European bourse to close higher Monday, trade continued to draw some upward momentum from last week's half-percentage-point rate cut by the European Central Bank.
The electronically traded Xetra Dax gained 0.66 percent, or 33.63 points, to 5,167.55, spurred by a rally in telecom colossus Deutsche Telekom (FDTE), which added nearly 1 percent to 40.60 euros ahead of an earnings news conference on Thursday.
In Paris, stocks withstood the worst of the Wall Street anxiety to finish just shy of Friday's record high. The CAC 40 index of leading components trimmed early losses to close only marginally lower, at 4,355.0.
Swiss shares rebounded from early declines to end 0.46 percent lower, at 7,352.9, as Wall Street's relative strength on the back of the Compaq profit warning lent some support.
Compaq (CPQ), the world's leading maker of personal computers, sent a shock wave through markets early Monday after warning it expects to post first-quarter profit of 15 cents per share, more than 50 percent less than the 31 cents anticipated by Wall Street analysts.
In early European trade, Compaq stock was trading some 20 percent lower. The early losses were exacerbated by an overnight slide in Asia, where Tokyo's Nikkei index gave up 2 percent, added to the selling pressure in London.
Tech stocks came under pressure across the European spectrum. German business software firm SAP [FSE:FSAP3] closed down 3 percent in Frankfurt, Swedish mobile-phone maker Ericsson dipped 0.5 percent, while French chipmaker STMicroelectronics (PSGS) gave up 2 percent in Paris Monday.
The Compaq warning came on top of anxiety about Europe's shaky economic landscape and background concerns about the escalating conflict in Kosovo.
Germany's electronically-traded Xetra Dax held steady in the plus column by mid-morning Monday.
In Frankfurt, giant Siemens (FSIE) closed up 0.50 euro at 63.10.
The battle is likely heat up this week in one of Europe's nastier telecom tussles in recent memory. Telecom Italia is believed to be mulling a white knight defense to ward off unwanted advances from its diminutive suitor, Olivetti. TI failed over the weekend to muster a quorum at a strategy-planning shareholder meeting.
Among those seen as possible new bidders, according to London's Financial Times, are British Telecommunications (BT.A), Deutsche Telekom (FDTE) and Spain's Telefonica.
In the media sector, shares of Anglo-Dutch Reed Elsevier (REED) ended down 0.76 percent at 581.3 pence following a newspaper report over the weekend that Reed is mulling a 4 billion pound ($6.43 billion) disposal of its business publishing and exhibitions business.
Electrical Retailer Dixons (DXNS) topped the FTSE 100 gainers list, surging 8.14 percent to 1,520 pence after the company said it is considering ways to optimize the value of its new free Internet service, Freeserve. The options reportedly include an initial public offering of a minority stake. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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