European Midday Update: U.K. Pulled in Two Directions by Oil, Telcos
LONDON -- There's a two-way pull in the FTSE 100 Wednesday morning. The index opened 27 points lower, but by midmorning was 19.4 higher to 6436.4 after investors taking profits in the oil majors were overwhelmed by those who believe a report that Deutsche Telekom (DT) - Get Report is on the verge of acquiring Cable & Wireless (CWP) .
Yes, we know you've heard it all before, but German magazine
Focus Money
is insisting that this time it's true and talks between Deutsche and C&W are at an advanced stage. C&W gained 69p to
12.30 ($18.70) and Deutsche was up 2.20 euros to 58.20.
The rest of the telecom sector rose alongside C&W as the market waits for the expected good second-quarter subscriber numbers from major operators
Vodafone AirTouch
(VOD) - Get Report
,
BT Cellnet
and
One2One
. This week it became official that a majority of the population in the U.K. has mobile phones. Vodafone was up a couple of pence to 291 and
British Telecom
(BTY)
improved 6p to 895.
Colt Telecom
(COLTY)
rose 30p to
24.00 as the company announced that its German intercity network has commenced operation. However,
Cordiant Communications
(CDA)
fell 35p to 336 on news that the company is to buy
Lighthouse Global Network
of the U.S. in an all-share deal to create the world's tenth largest communications group.
Oils were on a slippery slope after Saudi Arabia's offer to boost its oil output by 500,000 barrels per day. This has pushed August brent crude below $30 and prompted profit-taking among the majors, which have enjoyed a strong run of late.
BP Amoco
(BPA)
retreated 22p to 608 and
Shell
(SC) - Get Report
eased 9p to 546.
Tradepoint Financial Networks
gained 7p to 147 as the
Securities Exchange Commission
gave the go-ahead for it to offer U.S. investors direct access to European equity trading.
Many big-named Continental stocks were staging technical rebounds after they sold off Tuesday amid news that the firm
Stoxx
planned to reweight its indices in the coming months, lifting Europe's major stock markets. The
Xetra Dax
in Frankfurt was up 119.6 to 7063.98 and the
CAC 40
in Paris was 57.05 higher to 6551.80. The
Neuer Markt's
tech-heavy
Nemax 50
index was up 55.2 to 6086.9.
France Telecom
(FTE)
was up 3.10 euros to 146.40 ($139.29) and
KPN
(KPN)
was up 2.40 euros to 47.30.
Most blue-chip German tech shares were higher, with
Siemens
(SMAWY)
up 4.20 euros to 172.20,
Infineon
(IFX)
up 0.75 euro to 79.25 and
SAP
(SAP) - Get Report
up 7.00 euros to 206.40.
Retail giant
Metro
fell 0.65 euro to 40.34 after the company refused to comment on reports that
Wal-Mart
(WMT) - Get Report
was checking its books prior to launching a takeover bid.
