Shares climbed in European trading on Tuesday, the last full trading session in a holiday-shortened week, with defensive food producers and utility firms among the strongest performers.
The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 indadvanced 0.6% to 194.44, up for the first time in five sessions.
Companies that aren't so attuned to the economy were doing well, with food producer Nestle up 0.9% and utility E.On up 1.2%.
Economic data out Tuesday continued to paint a gloomy picture, with U.K. GDP contracting more than expected in the third quarter. See full story.
On a national level, the U.K. FTSE 100 index rose 0.4% to 4,264.56, the German DAX 30 index edged up 0.3% at 4,651.84, while the French CAC-40 index traded flat at 3,151.62.
Asian markets dropped sharply Tuesday in thin trading as investors rushed to take profits ahead of the holidays, while U.S. stock futures were mostly higher. See Asia Markets. See Indications.
Stocks retreated on Wall Street on Monday, after Walgreen Co., the nation's largest drugstore chain reported disappointing results and Toyota Motor Corp. forecast a loss for the year. See Monday's U.S. Market Snapshot.
Premiere shares drop
Back with European corporate news and shares of German pay-TV group Premiere declined 6.6%.
The firm said that it has renegotiated its debt facilities of 525 million euros, in a deal conditional upon the firm raising 450 million euros of new equity. The equity will be raised in two stages and shareholder News Corp. has agreed to backstop the second rights issue, the firm said.
Premiere expects to report an adjusted operating loss of between 40 million euros and 60 million euros in 2008 and a significant loss in 2009. The firm is targeting break-even EBITDA by the end of 2010.
News Corp. is also the owner of MarketWatch, the publisher of this report.
Shares of aerospace group Rolls-Royce climbed 2.3%.
Etihad Airways has chosen its Trent 700EP engine to power a further eight Airbus A330 aircraft, the firm said. The value of the engine business, including a long-term services contract, is $575 million.
Shares of Italian defense group Finmeccanica rose 1.7% after Goldman Sachs said that the group is its top pick in the European defense sector.
"Despite a recent rally, Finmeccanica has been the weakest performing European large cap defense stock so far in 2008, in our view reflecting the acquisition of DRS, a rights issue and the Italian government cutting its stake by 4%," the broker said.
It said that it sees potential upside of 31% for the shares.
Freenet shares soared 27.7%. The firm's chief executive Eckhard Spoerr will resign with effect from Jan. 23, Reuters reported.
