Technology stocks were again the main driving force in Frankfurt which pushed ahead for the third successive day in moderate volumes. Siemens was the main focus, gaining ground on speculation that the stock market authorities were about to change the weighting of the benchmark indices to reflect the free-float of shares rather than overall market capitalisation.
The stock, widely seen as the major beneficiary of any weightings change of this sort, hit a high for the session of €168.39 before closing €3.80 or 2.4 per cent better at €166.30.
Banks remained in demand as the merger spotlight picked out Commerzbank and linked the group with rumours of an approach from Swiss sources. Deutsche Bank added 90 cents at €98.50 and Commerzbank rose €1.18 or 3 per cent to €39.78.
The Xetra Dax index was down 31.78 at 7,145.00 at 5.30 p.m. German time.
Paris consolidated its position above 6,500 with Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux leading the gainers but technology stocks were mixed. The CAC 40 index rose 13.4 or 0.2 per cent to 6,532.44.
Suez Lyonnaise added 5.1 per cent to €182.90 after a change in the shareholder structure of its cable network operator, Noos, led Morgan Stanley Dean Witter to raise its recommendation on the stock to "strong buy" from "outperform". MSDW also lifted its price target to 220 from 210. On Monday, MSDW Private Equity and NTL Inc announced they were buying France Telecom's stake in Noos, bringing Suez Lyonnaise €300 million. Its share price is now at its best level since July 10th.
France Telecom, which reports its first-half revenues tomorrow fell 1.6 per cent to €133.50 as its share price reflected the rising bids in the German UMTS auction. It is bidding via MobilCom but is not yet looking like a clear winner.
Amsterdam closed little changed at trading within a range of just five points on the AEX index. It finished off 2.24 at 678.33. Financials provided some of the more visible firm features with ABN Amro adding 65 cents at €27.74 and ING gaining €1.65 at €74. Among tech-related stocks, KPN came off €1.38 at €36.47. Six-month results at the lower end of the broker forecast range sent media leader Wolters Kluwer down €1.07 or 3.9 per cent to €26.25. Vendex, the retailer, shed €2.15 at €16.85 on disappointing results.
