Shares in Paris strengthened sharply in the afternoon as the US market opening inspired confidence. The CAC 40 index gained 2 per cent to 6,532.49, its high for the day. Twenty-eight blue-chip issues rose while 11 fell. Of the decliners, power engineering group Alstom was by far the biggest. It lost 14.9 per cent to 26.46; the biggest one-day slide in its two-year history on the Paris bourse.
Equant, the former airline reservations system turned high-speed telecommunications network, rose 4 per cent to 40 before falling back to close up 0.7 per cent at 38.02 as fresh hopes emerged for a takeover, this time from Cable & Wireless. Equant, often a volatile stock, reported its first-half earnings after the close of the US market yesterday.
On the broader market, video game software maker Infogrames Entertainment fell 8.2 per cent to 24.50 after reporting an annual turnover increase of 67 per cent rather than its expected doubling. Several brokerage firms downgraded the stock. FRANKFURT broke a six-day losing streak with a rally for technology stocks and at BMW restoring some much needed shine to sentiment.
An early rally for the Nasdaq and news that it had ended a much-criticised e-commerce joint venture with Intel sent SAP, the business software leader, up 8.06 to 239.59. Siemens gained 4.60 to 167 and Infineon 84 cents to 72.80.
Top-of-the-range first-half results sent BMW up to 38.66, a two-year high, in intra-day trading. The shares added 99 cents at 37.44. in robust volumes. Volkswagen improved 17 cents to 47.11.
Retailers were also in demand. Metro gained 1.10 to 45.10 after Lehman Brothers added the stock to its list of preferred European shares. Karstadt Quelle added 1.85 at 32.39.
A downgrade at West LB from neutral to underperform hit Allianz. The stock fell to 390.50 before recovering to 404.90, off 10 cents.
Deutsche Telekom and Mobilcom improved as the global auction for the third generation of German mobile phone licences got under way. Telekom added 30 cents at 47.45.
At 5.30pm German time, the Xetra Dax index was up 93.41 at 7,221.71. Positive broker comment was said to have lifted cosmetics group Beiersdorf which jumped 6.30 or 6.3 per cent to 106.
Amsterdam rallied modestly as the buyers returned to Philips. The AEX index ended up 4.46 at 668.10.
Philips, down almost 10 per cent over the final two days of last week as investors tracked a sinking Nasdaq, swung upwards on bargain-hunting. The shares jumped 2.38 or 5.1 per cent to 48.88 in 12.6m traded.
Foods leader Unilever stayed out of favour, losing a further 1.73 to 47.30. KLM lost 95 cents to 28.75.
Milan ended just off session highs, boosted by Nasdaq's rebound, while telecoms and banking stocks also bounced after last week's sell-off.
