Europe eases slightly

December 6, 2001 Posted: 1700 GMT

LONDON (CNN) -- Europe's major bourses eased back slightly late on Thursday after a weak opening on Wall Street.

London's FTSE 100 rose 0.6 percent at 5367.6 and the CAC 40 blue chip index in Paris was little changed at 4679.38, while Frankfurt's electronically traded Xetra Dax gained 0.3 percent to 5276.79.

The pan-European FTSE Eurotop 300, a broader index of the region's largest stocks, was up 0.3 percent at 1273.66.

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Germany's Siemens (FSIE), the communications giant, rose 0.7 percent. The company expects a recovery in the mobile phone market and said results should improve next year, despite tough conditions which made it push back deadlines for some key profit goals.

Nokia, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, climbed 6.6 percent in Helsinki  and rival Ericsson was unchanged in Stockholm, while France's Alcatel (PCGE) climbed 2.3 percent and Britian's mmO2 climbed 5.2 percent. 

In the aerospace and defense sector, European Aeronautic Defense & Space (PEAD), which owns 80 percent of Airbus Industries, rose 2.4 percent after German airline Lufthansa order 15 jumbo jets worth about $3.6 billion.

Lufthansa [FAE:LHAG] fell 2.9 percent after the Airbus purchase was announced.

German drug maker Bayer (FBAY) rose 2 percent. The company approved a restructuring plan that would split the company into four  divisions – healthcare, chemicals, agro-chemicals and polymers.  

Six Continents (SXC), the world's second largest hotel's group, rose 4.4 percent. The company posted pretax profits of £731 million ($1 billion), which was above analysts' expectations of between £710 million and £725 million for the year to end-September, and said U.S. hotel trading had improved since September.

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Milan's MIB30 index gained 0.6 percent, in Amsterdam the AEX index remained level, while the SMI in Zurich was down 0.2 percent.

Wall Street's indexes meandered at midday on Thursday as investors took stock of the previous day's rally in light of lacklustre retail sales and new economic and geo-political reports. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.13 to 2,046.97, while the Dow Jones industrial average added 7.34 to 10,121.63. The Standard & Poor's 500 eased 2.92 to 1,167.43.