Miners rise as copper nears record price

Eurostoxx 50: 2.953.63 (–0.50) Frankfurt DAX: 7,077.48 (–25.32) Paris CAC: 4,005.50 (+3.13):EUROPEAN SHARES rebounded from three-week lows yesterday, with energy and mining stocks advancing as confidence over the outlook for corporate profits overshadowed worries about political unrest in Egypt.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index ended flat at 1,143.53 points, recovering from a three-week low of 1,131.56 earlier in the session following nervousness over protests in Egypt to unseat President Mubarak.

Concerns about the unrest spreading across the Middle East largely eased, although investors will be closely monitoring developments in Cairo after Mr Mubarak appointed a new interior minister as part of a revamped cabinet.

The STOXX Europe 600 oil and gas index was among the biggest gaining sectors, up 0.8 per cent, with sentiment helped by better-than-expected profits from US peer Exxon Mobil.

Mining firms also rose as copper prices hovered near record highs on healthy demand expectations from the US and China, with the STOXX Europe 600 basic resources index up 0.5 per cent.

Though worries over the political crisis in Egypt largely receded, its impact still lingered among individual shares.

The world’s biggest cement producer, Lafarge, fell 1.7 per cent after the French firm said it was halting production in Egypt due to the unrest. Within the sector, Italcementi and Titan Cement shed 3.7 and 4.2 per cent respectively.

Analysts said technical indicators pointed to profit-taking in the equity markets after hefty gains from the start of the year.

“People will continue to watch what’s happening in Egypt, but I think the market takes this as an excuse after a long rally to do some profit-taking,” said Klaus Wiener, chief economist at Generali Investments. “If we have a correction here, there are a lot of investors still on the sidelines who know that many analysts think that equities will be the best performing asset class in 2011.”

Among individual gainers, Carrefour rose 5.3 per cent after the world’s second biggest retailer confirmed that it was looking at listing certain assets to boost their valuation.

Sanofi-Aventis gained 1.3 per cent after US biotech group Genzyme opens its book to the French drugmaker in takeover talks. – (Reuters)