Weak financials sent Frankfurt lower in moderate trading volumes. Investor disenchantment with bank and insurance shares offset a further rally for technology stocks.
Interest rate concerns dictated direction among the banks, sending Deutsche Bank down 81 cents at €95.44 and leaving Commerzbank and Dresdner Bank off €1.30 at €37.90 and €1.47 at €48.08 respectively.
Munich Re fell €22 or 6 per cent to €334.91 after Morgan Stanley Dean Witter downgraded the stock from neutral to underperform and cut its target price to €300. Rival insurer Allianz shed €8.01 at €392.
Technology-related shares stayed in demand. SAP added €6.94 at €245.94 and Siemens put on €1.49 at €168.49.
Paris closed flat as the weaker Nasdaq opening and less-than-reassuring US economic data took the shine off the day. The CAC-40 index was 10.20 lower at 6,532.29. Many share price movements were pegged to results.
Network communications company Equant jumped 8.1 per cent to €41.10 after reporting narrower losses for the second quarter. It also continued to find support from talk of another possible suitor.
Food company Danone fell 3.2 per cent to €157 after Lehman Brothers cut its rating to "outperform" from "buy".
Amsterdam pushed ahead on further gains by Philips and a results-led surge at chemicals leader DSM. Philips rose €1.62 to €50.50 for a two-day gain of 8.6 per cent as shares in the electronics giant spun back from recent weakness. Telecommunications leader KPN added 71 cents at €38.30.
Strong results gave DSM a lift. Doubled first-half profits and a forecast of record earnings per share for the year sparked a scramble for the shares which ended €1.20 better at €34. Foods and detergents leader Unilever rose €1.50 to €48.80. The AEX index ended 2.71 better at 670.89.
Milan was little changed in thin trade, with the Mibtel all-share index off 0.02 per cent or 6 points at 31,694.
The most active stock was food and energy group Compart which rose 12.2 per cent to €1.688 after its €1 billion takeover offer for Falck and Falck unit Sondel.
Helsinki lost ground after declines among tech stocks. The Hex index finished 113.76 lower at 13,822.64.
