European equity markets ended largely higher on Wednesday, recovering from early losses thanks to a strong start on Wall Street.
At the close, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.05 per cent to 1,333.49, Frankfurt's Xetra Dax rose 0.1 per cent to 6,973.67, the CAC 40 added 0.3 per cent to 4,855.40. London's FTSE 100 remained in the red, though, 0.5 per cent down at 5,880.1.
Wall Street was buoyed by stronger-than-expected retail sales numbers and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.7 per cent at the time of the European close.
"I don't think one should get too carried away by the retail number; most of the rise was from inflationary items. But the market clearly liked it, which tells me people are looking for reasons to buy," said Edmund Shing, European equities strategist at BNP Paribas.
ABB (NYSE:ABB), the Swiss engineering group, fell 5.1 per cent to EU26.04 after chief executive Fred Kindle announced "irreconcilable differences" with the board had forced his exit - a surprise move, given the company's turnaround from near bankruptcy under his stewardship.
Indeed, the company announced its much better-than-expected fourth quarter results a day early to try to soften the blow and announced also a SFr2.2bn share buyback.
"Fred Kindle is probably the most successful CEO in ABB's history and for him to resign during its most successful trading period will be a shock to the market," said Citigroup in a research note.
Peugeot gained 4.7 per cent to EU49.40 after the French carmaker reported an unexpectedly strong rise in full-year operating profit and raised its profit margin target for 2008 to 3.5 per cent.
Norwegian telecoms group Telenor (NASDAQ:TELN) fell 6.4 per cent to NKr102.25 after missing expectations with an 11.6 per cent fall in fourth-quarter core profit.
"The outlook for 2008 does not look encouraging," said Mattias Wellander at S&P Equity Research, given weaker than expected core earnings margins and targeted revenue growth of just 5 per cent. S&P downgraded its recommendation to "sell" from "buy".
But shares in Storebrand, the Norwegian insurer, enojyed a 7.5 per cent jump to NKr44.35 after reporting a rise in fourth quarter profits. The company said its new policy would be to by pay out more than 35 per cent of of after-tax profits in dividends.
German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp fell 3.5 per cent to EU33.79 after reporting a drop in its first-quarter profit that failed to better market estimates.
Bigger rival ArcelorMittal met expectations with its results, but its shares still suffered, down 3.6 per cent by mid-morning to EU47.39.
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