Friday July 3, 12:07 PM
Europe stocks lower; commods weigh but media rises
By Joanne Frearson
LONDON, July 3 (Reuters) - European shares were down by
midday on Friday, with commodity stocks the main drag on the
index as they tracked lower crude and metal prices.
By 1030 GMT, the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300
index of top shares was down 0.5 percent at 839.02 points after
hitting a one-week low of 838.21 points earlier in the session.
The U.S. market was closed on Friday for Independence Day
holiday.
'Historically July 4 in Europe tends to be a muted session
and we wouldn't expect today's session to be any different,'
said Joshua Raymond, market strategist at City Index.
'Yesterday was a particularly poor trading day and the
disappointing jobs data in the U.S. may have convinced anyone
who thought about trading today to stay away,' he said.
Mining stocks took the most points off the index as copper fell 1.4 percent.
Anglo American (LSE: AAL.L - news) , Antofagasta (LSE: ANTO.L - news) , BHP Billiton (LSE: BLT.L - news) , Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation, Rio
Tinto and Xstrata (LSE: XTA.L - news) were 0.8-2.6 percent lower.
Energy stocks were on the downside as crude slipped
0.5 percent. BG Group (LSE: BG.L - news) , BP, Royal Dutch Shell (Amsterdam: RDSA.AS - news) and Total were down 0.2-1.1 percent.
French utility EDF (Paris: FR0010242511 - news) lost 5.4 percent after Morgan
Stanley (Berlin: SYC.BE - news) downgraded its rating on the stock to 'equal weight'
from 'overweight', while both UBS (Virt-X: UBSN.VX - news) and Citigroup (NYSE: C - news) trimmed their
price target on the stock.
BANKS, MEDIA STOCKS GAIN
Banks were the biggest risers on the index. HSBC (LSE: HSBA.L - news) ,
Barclays (LSE: BARC.L - news) , Deutsche Bank (Xetra: 514000 - news) and Banco Santander (Madrid: BSCH.MC - news) gained 0.5-1.9 percent.
Media stocks were boosted after Credit Suisse upgraded the
sector to 'overweight' from 'underweight'.
Professional information providers Reed Elsevier (Amsterdam: 273044.AS - news) and Wolters Kluwer (Amsterdam: WKL.AS - news) rose over 3 percent,
while Vivendi (Paris: FR0000127771 - news) , WPP (LSE: WPP.L - news) and Pearson (LSE: PSON.L - news) were
0.4-0.9 percent higher.
Defensive stocks were in favour, with drugmakers
Sanofi (Paris: FR0000120578 - news) -Aventis, Roche (Virt-X: ROG.VX - news) and AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN.L - news)
up 0.5-1.9 percent.
Turning to macro economic data, euro zone retail sales fell
further than expected in May, dampening hopes an improvement in
consumer spending might ease the recession.
On Thursday, data showed U.S. employers shed nearly half a
million jobs in June when the unemployment rate surged to 9.5
percent, the highest in nearly 26 years.
'Payrolls were a wake-up call,' said Jacques Henry, analyst
at Louis Capital Markets in Paris.
'The data showed that the economic recovery remains fragile
and more downbeat data is to be expected, particularly on the
jobs front. Stocks are ripe for a consolidation period.'
Across Europe, the FTSE 100 index was down 0.2
percent, Germany's DAX (Xetra: news) was 0.5 percent lower and
France's CAC 40 (Paris: news) was down 0.5 percent.
(Additional reporting by Blaise Robinson; Editing by Dan Lalor)
Keywords: MARKETS EUROPE STOCKS ============================================================= For rolling updates on what is moving European shares please click on ============================================================= For pan-Europeanmarket data and news, click on codes in brackets: European Equities speed guide................... FTSEurofirst 300 index.............................. DJ STOXX index...................................... Top 10 STOXX sectors........................... Top 10 EUROSTOXX sectors...................... Top 10 Eurofirst 300 sectors................... Top 25 European pct gainers....................... Top 25 European pct losers........................ Main stock markets: Dow Jones (news) ............... Wall Street report ..... Nikkei 225 (news) ............. Tokyo report............ FTSE 100............... London report........... Xetra DAX............. Frankfurt market stories CAC-40................. Paris market stories... World Indices...................................... Reuters survey of world bourse outlook.......... Western European IPO diary........................... European Asset Allocation......................... Reuters News at a Glance (GLCE.PK - news) : Equities............... Main currency report:............................... Keywords: MARKETS EUROPE STOCKS/ =2
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