Financial shares weigh on European markets

Eurostoxx 50: 3,013.09 (+28.07) Frankfurt DAX: 7,272.32 (+87.15) Paris CAC: 4,110.35 (+39.97): AFTER FALLING for most of last week, European equities opened the week flat as disappointing profits news at HSBC cut off the market's brief rally on Friday.

In London, HSBC fell 4.5 per cent, bringing down the FTSE Eurofirst 300 banking sub-sector 0.8 per cent, one of the morning’s sharpest falls.

Bank of Cyprus shares fell 6.9 per cent to €2.85, helping drag the Greek market 1.8 per cent lower to 1,554.45.

The pan-European FTSE Eurofirst 300 was flat at 1,160 in midday trading.

Edison, the Italian utility group, led the overall market with gains of 3.4 per cent to €0.90 on reports in the Italian press that two of its shareholders, France’s EDF and A2A, another Italian utility, were restructuring their holdings with EDF taking control of the group.

Shares in EDF rose 1.6 per cent to €32.35, leading the Paris market. A2A also led its market and rose 2.1 per cent to €1.16.

In Germany, SAP gained 1.4 per cent to €43.95 after Barclays Capital raised the group’s price target. Nomura had raised its target for the group on Friday.

Kingspan, the Irish building materials company, rose 5 per cent to €7 after reporting higher operating profit for the year than expected, although the group cautioned on the future impact of British austerity plans.

CRH, another Irish building materials group, fell 1.7 per cent to €16.79. Even so, the CRH share price has so far this year outperformed Kingspan’s with gains of about 4 per cent year to date while Kingspan has slipped 8.5 per cent.

German conglomerate Siemens advanced 3.6 per cent on talk of a potential listing of its lights unit Osram.

The company declined to comment.

Elsewhere Danish wind turbine maker Vestas rose 3.6 per cent after traders pointed towards an order to supply turbines for a 252-megawatt German offshore wind project.

Essar Energy was up 3.5 per cent, boosted by Credit Suisse initiating coverage of the Indian-focused oil and gas business with an “overweight” rating and 600p price target.

Syngenta, the biggest maker of agricultural chemicals, jumped 2.6 per cent to 311.40 Swiss francs.– (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2011/Reuters)