Distorted US jobs data made for an uneasy session in Europe. Core stocks slipped lower but the wider indices managed to improve. The FTSE Eurobloc 100 index shed 0.2 per cent at 1,090.75. The FTSE Eurotop 100 index added 0.4 per cent at 3,005.28 and the FTSE Eurotop 300 index ended 0.3 per cent higher at 1,316.57.
Frankfurt rounded off a strong week with the Xetra DAX index closing little changed, down just 0.05 on the day at 5,419.26, but up 5.7 per cent on the week.
Deutsche Telekom, seen by Salomon Smith Barney as one of Europe's more favoured European Internet stocks, added €1.10 at €65.81.
Utility Viag fell 39 cents to €18 in spite of confirmation that the group planned to hive off its telecoms operations in 2001. In a weak chemicals sector, BASF lost €1.80 at €41.
Paris ended on a sour note, with the CAC-40 index off 20.33 at 4,721.93. The net gain on the week was 3.7 per cent.
Schneider, the electrical equipment group, rose €3.70 or 5.3 per cent to €74 amid talk of an imminent take-over bid. Swiss demand for the shares sparked speculation that heavy engineer ABB was the prospective buyer.
Oils tracked the weaker oil price. TotalFina shed €3.30 at €114. Glassmaker Saint Gobain had another unhappy session, slipping €4.50 to €164.5 for a two-day decline of 6 per cent.
Amsterdam saw Royal Dutch slide steeply. The market heavyweight came off €2.15 or 3.9 per cent to €53.05 as international oil prices continued to lose their grip on recent peaks.
Telecoms leader KPN continued to advance amid a welter of merger rumours. The stock added 98 cents at 44.68 for a net gain this week of 11 per cent. At the close, the AEX index was little changed, off 0.89 at 554.88.
Madrid made modest gains which took the general index 3.47 higher to 876.03. Telecommunications giant Telefonica put on 2.2 per cent to €15.54, helped by gains in its sector across Europe.
