LONDON -- When Alan Greenspan speaks, the world listens.
"It's definitely going to be a long day," moaned one senior trader, explaining that with the U.S.
Federal Reserve chairman due to speak to Congress later Thursday, volume in European markets was decidedly on the thin side.
Nevertheless, share prices in London were holding up well given the nasty overnight falls on Wall Street. By midmorning, the
FTSE 100
was up 18.1 points to 6483.5, and the
Techmark
, to some extent reflecting the
Nasdaq
fall, had eased 7.4 points to 3650.0.
British Airways
(BAB) - Get Report
dipped 5p lower to 383 ($5.71) after the U.S. administration warned that it would take action to prevent British Airways using its merger with
KLM
(KLM)
to get more access to U.S. airports unless an open skies agreement is reached with the U.K. Dorothy Robyn, a senior White House official, was quoted as saying "the U.S. will not allow British Airways to use a merger with KLM as a back door to achieve greater access to our market."
Pharmaceutical shares fell after the U.S.
Senate
voted for drug-import legislation aimed at lowering drug prices.
Glaxo Wellcome
(GLX)
fell 15p to
18.02 and
Smithkline Beecham
(SBH) - Get Report
dipped 15p to 813.
HSBC
argued investors should reduce holdings in both stocks.
Among the tech shares,
Sema
held steady at
10.11 ahead of a conference later Thursday to talk about the deal with
United States Cellular Corporation
(USM) - Get Report
, which has chosen Sema's over-the-air-activation solution for its networks.
Credit Suisse First Boston
recommended Sema stock Thursday morning.
Most of Europe's other major stock markets were higher early, as the markets shrugged off the
European Central Bank's
decision on interest rates that will be made this afternoon. With the ECB expected to keep things on hold, the
Xetra Dax
in Frankfurt rose 40.92 to 7407.49 and the
CAC 40
in Paris gained 59.22 to 6554.33. The
Neuer Markt's
tech-heavy
Nemax 50
index moved 4.0 higher to 6276.6.
Deutsche Telekom
(DT) - Get Report
plummeted 2.45 euros to 57.95 amid reports it had launched a formal $53 billion bid for U.S. wireless operator
VoiceStream
(VSTR)
. While the price sounds steep to investors, it may be necessary to head off a bid from Japanese rival
NTT DoCoMo
(NTT)
.
Elsewhere in European telcos,
France Telecom
(FTE)
rose 3.40 euros to 154.40 and
Telefonica
(TEF) - Get Report
rose 0.10 euro to 24.70.
Vivendi
climbed 1.35 euros to 90.75 before the midday trading start of its utilities unit Vivendi Environnement. Vivendi priced the shares last night at 34 euros each, below the midpoint of the price range of 33 to 36 euros.
In Frankfurt, big German technology shares were higher, with
Epcos
(EPC) - Get Report
up 0.35 euro to 119.90 and
Siemens
up 1.11 euros to 177.11. Hours before reporting second-quarter results software maker
SAP
(SAP) - Get Report
rose 5.27 euros to 224.23.
