Europe Higher, Attention on Scania

Ivaylo
18 Sep, 2001
New York City

European markets focused their attention on Scania after the Swedish truckmaker rejected an offer from MAN on Monday as European equity markets made advances. Commodity stocks and a slightly stronger end to Wall Street trading last week also offered support to indexes under pressure from auto stocks. The U.K. FTSE 100 index gained 0.1%, the German DAX Xetra 30 index was unchanged at 5,938 and the French CAC-40 index edged up 0.1%.

[R]6:30AM European markets were slightly higher Monday on Scania, commodities.[/R]
European markets were slightly higher by mid-morning on Monday. The U.K. FTSE 100 index gained 0.1% at 5,880, the German DAX Xetra 30 index was unchanged at 5,938 and the French CAC-40 index edged up 0.1% at 5,150. Merger and acquisition activity was also a focus in the auto sector after German truck maker Man AG said that it made a 9.6 billion euro ($12.2 billion) offer for Swedish counterpart Scania, a move Scania rejected. Man shares dipped 2.6%, while Scania gained 5.5%.

Oil company BP advanced 0.7% following a report on the Web Site of the Financial Times newspaper said that the company is set to launch a root and branch review of its global operations. French car maker PSA Peugeot Citroen slipped 0.6% after it announced that it has signed a letter of intent with Proton to consider possible co-operation between the companies. J.P. Morgan upgraded French software firm Atos Origin overweight from underweight on valuation, with the company''s shares down over 25% since the start of the year. Atos Origin shares gained 2.8%.

Oil prices edged higher for a second day on Monday, struggling to end their steepest slump in more than a decade. October delivery was up 2 cents at $63.35 a barrel in Globex electronic trading. Brent crude rose 14 cents to $63.47.

Gold traded on Monday at $580.80 an ounce, down $2.80 an ounce from Friday close of $578.00. The euro rose slightly against the U.S. dollar on Monday. In morning European trading, the euro climbed to $1.2684, up from $1.2658 late Friday in New York. The British pound advanced to $1.8836 from $1.8798. The dollar rose to 117.76 yen from 117.59 yen on Friday.

[R]5:00AM Precious metal extended their decline on Friday on strong dollar.[/R]
December gold ended down $3 to $583 a troy ounce on the NYME on Friday, while December silver closed down 7.5 cents to $ 10.875. October platinum lost $15.80 to settle at $1,163.70 an ounce. December palladium finished down $12.40 to $314.80.The most active December copper contract shed 6.30 cents to end at $3.3115 per pound.

The front-month October light, sweet crude oil contract finished up 11 cents at $63.33 a barrel. October unleaded gasoline settled up 2.28 cents to $1.5750 a gallon and October heating oil was off 0.87 cent to $1.7023 gallon. October natural gas declined 9.0 cents to close at $4.982 a million British thermal units.

On the New York Board of Trade, December Arabica coffee ended 1.30 cents lower at $1.0210 a pound. October futures on raw sugar in foreign ports settled up 0.28 cent at 12.44 cents a pound.