MW: Banks, oil producers under pressure in steady Europe
Barclays agrees to sell Barclays Global Investors to BlackRock
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares were steady on Friday, with losses for banks such as Barclays and oil producers counterbalanced by gains from pharmaceutical firms.
The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index (ST:SXXP 215.08, +0.28, +0.13%) traded flat at 214.89.
British bank Barclays (UK:BARC 299.25, -5.45, -1.79%) (BCS 19.90, +1.25, +6.70%) fell 1.8% in the financial sector. Shares in the firm rose almost 15% during the last week on wide expectations that it would receive a rival bid from BlackRock for its Barclays Global Investors fund management business.
Barclays, which had already agreed to sell the unit to CVC, said on Friday that BlackRock will buy BGI for $13.5 billion. See full story. Read analyst reaction to deal.
Other financials trading lower included Credit Agricole (FR:ACA 10.94, -0.26, -2.32%) , down 1.8% and UBS (UBS 14.83, +0.54, +3.78%) (CH:UBSN 16.04, +0.44, +2.82%) , down 1%.
Within regional markets, the German DAX 30 index (DX:DAX 5,095, -11.89, -0.23%) slipped 0.3% to 5,094.31, the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,339, +3.83, +0.12%) declined 0.1% to 3,332.45 while the U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 4,463, +0.87, +0.02%) advanced 0.1% to 4,46408.
Both Asian equity markets and U.S. stock futures were mixed, with Dow Jones Industrial Average futures down 9 points. Read Asia Markets.
Oil futures fell 59 cents to $72.13 a barrel in electronic trading, while gold futures declined $9.00 to $953.00 an ounce.
Oil producers trading lower included Total (TOT 58.48, +0.21, +0.36%) (FR:FP 41.01, -0.55, -1.31%) , down 0.8%.
Shares of mineral extractor Vedanta Resources (UK:VED 1,658, -88.00, -5.04%) fell 4.4%.
The firm said that it will issue $1 billion in convertible bonds as it also announced the acquisition of V.S. Dempo & Co. for around $368 million.
The group said it will use the net proceeds of the offering to support organic growth, increase its ownership interest in its subsidiaries and for general corporate purposes.
Drugmakers were helping to limit losses in Europe, with GlaxoSmithKline (UK:GSK 1,100, +39.88, +3.77%) shares up 1.3%.
The firm produces influenza vaccine and on Thursday, the World Health Organization declared H1N1 flu a pandemic, the first official pandemic declaration in 41 years. See full story.
Meanwhile shares of Novartis (NVS 40.29, +0.68, +1.72%) (CH:NOVN 43.10, +0.12, +0.28%) climbed 1.2% after the Swiss drugmaker said that, following the early completion of a production batch of influenza A (H1N1) vaccine, it plans to start clinical trials of the vaccine in July.
