Miners lower; BSS Group agrees takeover offer from Travis Perkins
By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares were trading around the flat line on Monday, as oil giant BP gained ground but investors continued to fret about the outlook for global economic growth.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index (ST:SXXP 237.81, +0.54, +0.23%) traded flat at 237.30, a similar performance to Friday. The index lost 4.5% last week as data fueled worries about global economic growth.
"We're still driven by macroeconmic [factors] where there are a number of concerns," said Edmund Shing, strategist at Barclays Capital.
"There's a question about Chinese growth and we know that a lot of marginal demand comes from China so clearly if people are worried about that then they are not going to be buying the miners," he added.
Miners fell on Monday, with Rio Tinto (UK:RIO 2,882, -52.50, -1.79%) (RTP 44.33, +0.07, +0.16%) shares down 2.1% and Antofagasta (UK:ANTO 765.50, -12.00, -1.54%) shares down 1.6%.
The German DAX index (DX:DAX 5,845, +10.74, +0.18%) (DE:BMW 38.30, +0.45, +1.19%) traded flat at 5,835.50, the U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 4,840, +1.82, +0.04%) declined 0.1% at 4,831.21 and the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,350, +1.30, +0.04%) declined 0.2% at 3,340.64.
Asian shares were mixed, while U.S. equity markets are closed for a holiday.
The dollar gained against the euro and sterling, with the common currency (CUR_EURUSD 1.2521, -0.0036, -0.2867%) down 0.3% at $1.2528 and the pound (CUR_GBPUSD 1.5129, -0.0067, -0.4409%) down 0.4% at $1.5133.
Still, oil giant BP (UK:BP. 332.85, +10.85, +3.37%) (BP 29.35, -0.04, -0.14%) rose 2.3%.
The Sunday Times newspaper reported that the firm has launched a search for a strategic investor to help secure its independence, as it moves to defend itself against potential takeover bids.
The company's advisers are trying to drum up interest among rival oil groups and sovereign wealth funds to take a stake of between 5% and 10% at a cost of up to 6 billion pounds, the paper said, without citing sources.
BP's management fears a takeover approach may come as soon as it has plugged the leaking oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, which is expected in the next few weeks.
On Monday, BP put the cost of the response to the spill at $3.12 billion.
Shares of BSS Group (UK:BTSM 427.00, +10.80, +2.60%) were up 2.6% after the firm agreed a 435.8 pence per share, or 557.6 million pound ($847.3 million), takeover from building materials peer Travis Perkins (UK:TPK 751.50, -3.00, -0.40%) .
