{"id":27,"date":"2007-02-20T20:26:39","date_gmt":"2007-02-20T20:26:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-finance-zone.co.uk\/?p=27"},"modified":"2007-02-20T20:26:39","modified_gmt":"2007-02-20T20:26:39","slug":"europe-retreats-as-property-stocks-fall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/2007\/02\/20\/europe-retreats-as-property-stocks-fall\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe retreats as property stocks fall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Volkswagen<\/font><\/a><\/strong>, the German carmaker, shrugged off broader equity market losses on Tuesday after reporting strong full-year results.<\/p>\n

VW jumped 8 per cent to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac94.94 after beating market forecasts with a 52 per cent rise in operating profit last year, although its guidance for 2007 was limited to a forecast of further profit growth.<\/p>\n

VW was also boosted by hopes that its strong performance would eventually prompt a bid from rival Porsche<\/font><\/a><\/strong>, up 2.7 per cent at \u00e2\u201a\u00ac1,058.31.<\/div>\n

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 fell 0.3 per cent to 1,544.99 as property and oil companies declined.<\/p>\n

Verbund <\/font><\/a><\/strong>lost 6 per cent to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac34.34 after Austria\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s biggest utility reported a 43 per cent rise in full-year net profit, although this was below market expectations as power prices eased in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

The real estate sector weakened after the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Land Securities said rising interest rates were cooling the market. After a strong run over the past two weeks, French group Unibail<\/font><\/a><\/strong> fell 1.3 per cent to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac235.80 following a downgrade by Deutsche Bank from \u00e2\u20ac\u0153buy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153hold\u00e2\u20ac\u009d on valuation grounds.<\/p>\n

CRH<\/font><\/a><\/strong> rose 2.7 per cent to a record \u00e2\u201a\u00ac34.05 as sentiment towards the Irish building materials group was boosted by the rich price paid ($4.6bn) by Vulcan Materials for Florida Rock Industries.<\/p>\n

CRH has a significant US presence and ABN Amro said aggregates players were looking beyond short-term weakness in the US housing market and focusing on long-term scarcity value of reserves.<\/p>\n

Continental<\/strong><\/font><\/a> <\/strong><\/span>rose 1.8 per cent to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac101.05 after Citigroup raised its target price on the German tyremaker from \u00e2\u201a\u00ac100 to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac120 and reiterated a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153buy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d rating ahead of Thursday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s results when a large dividend increase is expected.<\/p>\n

Linde<\/font><\/a><\/strong> of Germany added 1.6 per cent at \u00e2\u201a\u00ac78.44 after selling its Mexican industrial and medical gases business to Praxair of the US for an undisclosed sum.<\/p>\n

Carlsberg<\/strong><\/font><\/a> <\/strong><\/span>fell 6.7 per cent to DKr583 after its 2007 outlook disappointed. The Danish beermaker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s full-year earnings met expectations, but it cautioned that higher capital expenditure would have an impact on profit growth.<\/p>\n

Grolsch<\/font><\/a><\/strong>jumped 3.3 per cent to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac32.94 as the Dutch brewer surprised\u00c2\u00a0with an extra dividend of \u00e2\u201a\u00ac0.33 a share after reporting better-than-expected full-year profits.<\/p>\n

Heineken<\/strong><\/font><\/a> <\/strong><\/span>fell 2.3 per cent to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac39.36 ahead of its results on Wednesday. Belgium\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s InBev<\/font><\/a><\/strong> firmed 0.5 per cent at \u00e2\u201a\u00ac53.07, supported by ongoing speculation about a merger with US rival Anheuser-Busch.<\/p>\n

Capitalia<\/font><\/a><\/strong>, the Italian bank, eased 0.6 per cent to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac6.67 ahead of Thursday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s board meeting, which is expected to address the strategic rift between Matteo Arpe, chief executive, and Cesare Geron\u00c2\u00adzi, chairman.<\/p>\n

Mr Geronzi is thought to favour a tie-in with Spain\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Santander<\/font><\/a><\/strong>to help block the advances of Dutch rival ABN Amro<\/font><\/a><\/strong>, which is Capitalia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s biggest shareholder with an 8.6 per cent stake. But Mr Arpe appears to favour consolidation within Italy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fragmented banking sector.<\/p>\n

JPMorgan sounded a note of caution. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The probability of restructuring is low for the time being as management is still focused on completing the strategic plan, while the timing of potential M&A remains uncertain,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Francesca Tondi. Santander firmed\u00c2\u00a00.3 per cent at \u00e2\u201a\u00ac14.65, while ABN Amro shed 0.1 per cent to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac25.92.<\/p>\n

IWKA<\/font><\/a><\/strong> rose 4 per cent to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac25.18 after UBS raised its price target on the German automation group from \u00e2\u201a\u00ac24 to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac30 and reiterated a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153buy\u00e2\u20ac\u009d recommendation.<\/p>\n

Autostrade<\/font><\/a><\/strong>, Italy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s largest toll road operator, added 0.2 per cent to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac22.63 amid hopes for a revival of a politically-blocked takeover by Abertis<\/font><\/a><\/strong> of Spain, up 0.2 per cent at \u00e2\u201a\u00ac22.20, after Italy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s prime minister said talks with his Spanish counterpart were constructive.<\/p>\n

Shares in Metrovacesa<\/font><\/a><\/strong> were suspended from trading after plans to split the Spanish property group in two were announced to resolve a long-running power struggle between its two largest shareholders.<\/p>\n

The separation plan would involve its majority-owned division, Gecina<\/strong><\/font><\/a> <\/strong><\/span>in France, buying up most of Metrovacesa\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s French assets. Metrovacesa said the split would value the company at \u00e2\u201a\u00ac75.67 a share \u00e2\u20ac\u201c nearly a 36 per cent discount to Monday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s closing price. Gecina would be valued at \u00e2\u201a\u00ac129.36 a share \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a discount of 9 per cent. Gecina shares were also suspended.<\/p>\n

Oil companies eased as crude prices retreated, with France\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Total<\/strong><\/font><\/a> <\/strong><\/span>down 1.5 per cent to \u00e2\u201a\u00ac52.78 and Norway\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Statoil<\/strong><\/font><\/a> <\/strong><\/span>off 1.6 per cent at NKr156.00.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Volkswagen, the German carmaker, shrugged off broader equity market losses on Tuesday after reporting strong full-year results. VW jumped 8<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stock-exchange"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/the-finance-zone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}