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Europe ends in mixed mood
LONDON, England (CNN) -- European markets ended mixed on Monday, as oil stocks fell on OPEC's decision to increase production and telecom stocks were boosted by a broker upgrade. London's FTSE 100 was down 0.7 percent to 3,947, the CAC 40 blue chip index in Paris rose 0.3 percent to 3,1690.82 and Frankfurt's electronically traded Xetra Dax gained 1.1 percent to 3,070.68 in late trading (the German market was set to close at 1900 GMT). The pan-European FTSE Eurotop 300, a broader index of the region's largest stocks, was up 0.3 percent. Oil stocks recovered some earlier losses after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided on Sunday in Vienna to increase production by 1.5 million barrels per day to make up for shortfalls caused by the political crisis in Venezuela. (Full story) Brent crude for February delivery dropped as much as 1.6 percent to $29.20 a barrel in London. France's TotalFinaElf (PFP) edged down 2.1 percent to 131.30 euros in Paris, Shell Transport & Trading (SHEL) slipped 1.5 percent to 410 pence and BP (BP) fell 1.9 percent to 414.6 pence in London. BP said on Monday it would sell $1.3 billion of oil and gas assets in the UK North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico to smaller U.S.-based oil producer Apache Corp. (Full story) Telecom stocks were bolstered by a ratings upgrade for the sector by Goldman Sachs, which raised its rating for France Telecom (PFTE) to "in line" from "underperform," lifting the group's shares 11 percent to 24 euros. Germany's Deutsche Telekom rose 4.4 percent after Goldman Sachs upped its rating on the sector to "attractive'' from "neutral.'' The UK's Cable & Wireless (CW) rose 2.6 percent to 59 pence after Deutsche Bank upgraded its recommendation on the stock to "buy" from "hold." German carmarkers received a boost from a report showing German industrial production rose sharply in November. (Full story) DaimlerChrysler (FDCX) gained 1.4 percent to 30.12 euros, while BMW (FBMW) rose 2.2 percent to 29.73 euros and Volkswagen (FVOW) added 1 percent to 36.7 euros. British supermarket chain Safeway (SFW) was also a big gainer -- rising 8 percent to 294.3 pence -- after J. Sainsbury said it was considering making a £3.16 billion ($5.1 billion) bid for Safeway, which has already agreed to be sold to smaller UK rival William Morrison. (Full story) Shares in Sainsbury (SBRY) were down 6 percent to 243 pence, while Morrison (MRW) lost 3.1 percent to 184.5 pence. Also in the spotlight was UK fashion group Burberry (BRBY), which gained 13 percent to 229.4 pence after it reported better-than-expected sales figures for the third quarter. Retail sales for the September to November quarter grew 32 percent as new store openings and strong holiday turnover helped its bottom line. (Full story) German retailer KarstadtQuelle (FKAR) was up 0.4 percent to 16.7 euros after it posted a 1.7 percent fall in 2002 sales and said it was on track to hit its full-year earnings forecast. (Full story) The AEX index in Amsterdam was up 0.6 percent, Milan's MIB30 index rose 0.1 percent and the SMI in Zurich gained 0.7 percent. In the U.S. on Monday, stocks let go of an early rally as a number of negative analyst comments weighed on the technology sector. The Dow Jones industrial average was down 22.09 points to 8762.80, the Nasdaq composite dropped 8.39 points to 1439.33 and the S&P 500 index slid 4.29 points to 923.28.
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