Gains for Bayer, Henkel help support Germany’s DAX index
By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
MADRID (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets were mostly lower on Friday as investors kept a close eye on events in Ireland, with German equities marking a lone bright spot a day after the DAX hit a new closing high for 2010.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index (ST:STOXX600 269.82, -1.33, -0.49%) fell 0.3% to 270.34, after a strong prior session in which it gained 1.4%.
Investors appeared to be unwilling to hold big positions in stocks ahead of the weekend and any news on Ireland’s crisis. Officials in Dublin are holding talks with European Union and International Monetary Fund representatives to reach a course of action to solve the current debt crisis. Ireland’s finance minister, Brian Lenihan, said Thursday that the nation would be open to a bailout plan to shore up the banking sector.
News that some sort of rescue plan was taking shape drove European and global stocks to gains on Thursday.
The Irish ISEQ index (XX:IEOP 2,797, +21.25, +0.77%) rose 0.5% to 2,789.21 on Friday, helped by a 7% gain for Allied Irish Banks (IE:AIB 0.44, +0.02, +4.57%) , which is due to report earnings Friday.
The German DAX 30 index (DX:DAX 6,831, -1.27, -0.02%) logged a new 2010 closing and 52-week high in the prior session, and was one of the few indexes in positive territory on Friday.
The index gained 0.1% to 6,839.78, with help from drug giant Bayer AG (DE:BAYN 57.89, +1.28, +2.26%) , which rose 2.4% the day after saying it will cut 4,500 positions by 2012 as part of a restructuring plan, taking a related one-time charge of 1 billion euros ($1.37 billion) expected by the end of that period.
Also up, shares of adhesive maker Henkel AG & Co. (DE:HEN3 46.41, +0.59, +1.28%) rose 1.8% after Barclays Capital upgraded it to overweight from equal weight, saying 2010 should “herald a period of attractive and less volatile profit growth.”
In France, the CAC 40 index (FR:PX1 3,861, -7.26, -0.19%) fell 0.1% to 3,864.86.
The FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,728, -40.62, -0.70%) dropped 0.5% to 5,740.32. Shares of enterprise software firm Autonomy Corp. (UK:AU. 1,455, +56.00, +4.00%) bucked the negative trend to rise 2.9%.
Shares of government contractor Capita Group (UK:CPI 670.50, -19.50, -2.83%) fell 2.5%, continuing to lose ground from Thursday’s announcement that public-spending cuts in Britain will hit its second-half revenue growth harder than expected.
In the Netherlands, shares of semiconductor equipment maker ASML Holding NV (ASML 32.89, +1.04, +3.27%) (NL:ASML 24.69, +0.57, +2.34%) rose 1.7% after its chief financial officer, Peter Wennink, reportedly said Friday that he expects capital expenditure in the sector to rise next year.
Wennink also said ASML will return extra cash to shareholders via buybacks and dividends, The Wall Street Journal reported.
