MW: European stocks drop, BASF up on raised outlook
By Simon Kennedy
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stocks dropped in early trading Wednesday, as markets globally continued to react to China's unexpected interest rate hike, while trading updates from several European companies were also poorly received. Among the fallers, Dutch satellite navigation equipment group TomTom (NL:TOM2 6.01, -0.06, -0.92%) fell 3.2% after it reported a fall in profit and car maker Peugeot (FR:UG 27.50, +0.07, +0.26%) dropped 2% after reporting its third-quarter revenue. German chemical giant BASF (DE:BAS 51.33, +0.80, +1.58%) rose 1.7% in Frankfurt after raising its outlook for the year. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,709, +5.18, +0.09%) fell 0.3% to 5,686.47, the French CAC 40 index (FR:PX1 3,805, -2.62, -0.07%) dropped 0.4% to 3,793.43 and the German DAX 30 index (DX:DAX 6,497, +6.05, +0.09%) fell 0.3% to 6,474.31.
