Vestas Wind Systems, A.P. Moller-Maersk, SAS Group report earnings
By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares declined on Wednesday, with miners the worst performers as investors took some profits off the table.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index (ST:SXXP 258.02, -0.45, -0.17%) was down 0.4% at 257.48. The index ended with a gain of 1.1% in the previous session as worries about global economic health eased.
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"The limited fundamental data we saw yesterday -- especially out of the U.S. and helped along by the likes of rising metals prices -- was sufficient to cheer traders," said Ben Potter, analyst at IG Markets.
"An air of caution could now easily return to markets. It's also worth underlining the lower than average trade volumes being seen in the underlying market right now," he added.
Miners were paring strong gains from Tuesday, with Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (UK:ENRC 946.00, -22.00, -2.27%) down 1.4%.
The firm reported that its first-half net profit rose 63% to $902 million and also said that "there is a risk of commodity market volatility in the near-term and the management of costs remains a challenge."
Danish wind-turbine firm Vestas Wind Systems dropped 16.7% after it cut its 2010 ebit margin outlook and revenue guidance because certain orders for delivery to the U.S., Spain and Germany will take place so late in 2010 that they won't be recognized as income for the year.
It swung to a second-quarter net loss of 119 million euros ($153 million) from a profit of €43 million.
Overall, the U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,322, -28.89, -0.54%) lost 0.5% to trade at 5,321.50, the German DAX index (DX:DAX 6,200, -6.24, -0.10%) declined 0.4% to 6,183.72 and the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,655, -8.57, -0.23%) declined 0.4% to 3,648.66.
U.S. futures were pointing to a flat start on Wall Street with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures up 3 points.
In a busy day for Scandinavian earnings, Danish conglomerate A.P. Moller-Maersk climbed 2.2% after it said that it swung to an above-forecast first-half net profit of 13.4 billion Danish kroner ($2.3 billion), from a year-ago loss of DKK3.7 billion.
The company said that it benefited from positive developments in the global economy as well as cost savings and streamlining in the first six months of the year.
Airline SAS Group (SE:SAS 27.00, +0.90, +3.45%) rose 2.7%.
Its second-quarter loss narrowed to 502 million Swedish kronor ($68.3 million), from SEK1.0 billion in the year-ago period.
The firm said that, stripping out the impact of the volcanic-ash cloud that covered Europe earlier in the year, it would have recorded earnings of SEK464 million in the quarter.
