Miners lower; Abertis shareholders reportedly mulling buyout with CVC
By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares struggled for direction on Monday with U.S. markets closed for a holiday and amid lingering worries about growth, although oil giant BP managed to gain ground.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index (ST:SXXP 237.47, +0.20, +0.08%) traded flat at 237.33, dipping in and out of positive territory though the session in a similar performance to Friday.
The index lost 4.5% last week after 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 2,895, -39.50, -1.35%) (RTP 44.33, 0.00, 0.00%) shares down 1.5% and Antofagasta (UK:ANTO 763.50, -14.00, -1.80%) shares down 1.8%.
Of the benchmark regional indexes, the German DAX index (DX:DAX 5,837, +3.02, +0.05%) (DE:BMW 38.13, +0.28, +0.74%) traded up 0.1% at 5,837.74, the U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 4,840, +2.35, +0.05%) traded fractionally higher at 4,838.79 while the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,345, -3.87, -0.12%) declined 0.1% at 3,345.93.
Asian shares ended mixed while U.S. equity markets were closed for the Independence Day holiday.
In the currency markets, the Polish zloty gained against the dollar and the euro Monday, as Poland's acting president looked set to win a narrow victory in the presidential election. Read more on election.
However, the dollar gained against the euro and sterling, with the common currency (CUR_EURUSD 1.2507, -0.0049, -0.3903%) down 0.3% at $1.2523 and the pound (CUR_GBPUSD 1.5102, -0.0095, -0.6251%) down 0.5% at $1.5115.
Exporters moving higher in Europe included aircraft maker EADS (FR:EAD 16.17, +0.37, +2.34%) , up 2%, and automaker BMW (DE:BMW 38.13, +0.28, +0.74%) , up 1.1%.
Oil giant BP (UK:BP. 336.80, +14.80, +4.60%) (BP 29.35, 0.00, 0.00%) was a standout, up 4.8%.
The Sunday Times newspaper reported, without citing sources, that the firm has launched a search for a strategic investor to help secure its independence.
On Monday, Shokri Ghanem, Chairman of Libya's Nation Oil Co., told Dow Jones Newswires that he will recommend buying a stake in BP to the Libyan Investment Authority to take advantage of the firm's weak share price.
BP's shares have plunged since April 20 when an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig triggered a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. On Monday, BP put the cost of its response to the spill at $3.12 billion.
Shares of Spanish transportation group Abertis (ES:ABE 13.56, +1.47, +12.16%) surged more than 12% before they were suspended in Madrid.
The Financial Times reported that the firm's two key shareholders are mulling a possible leveraged buy-out with CVC, the European private equity firm.
Such a buy-out would value the Barcelona-based infrastructure group at more than €25 billion ($31.3 billion), the FT said.
The two shareholders are Spanish savings bank La Caixa and construction group ACS (ES:ACS 32.17, +2.69, +9.12%) , up 7.7%, according to the report.
U.K. media group Pearson (UK:PSON 891.50, +24.50, +2.83%) rose 2.7%.
It was upgraded to hold from sell at Royal Bank of Scotland, which said shares are now at their target price and they no longer see material valuation downside.
The analysts said they also no longer see a risk that Pearson will pay a strategic price for Brazilian media group Santillana. But the group said they are still concerned about Pearson's late cycle (U.S. school) and counter-cyclical (U.S. college) exposures.
