Crude price weakness sent oil stocks to the bottom of the performance charts on the day.
A round of downgrades from the oils team at Commerzbank, including a cut to "reduce" at Royal Dutch, added to the pressure on sentiment. The bank is unhappy with the "deterioration in production discipline which could lead to a resumption of the battle for market share between OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers".
Royal Dutch shed 2.7 per cent at €55.10 and TotalFinaElf, which comes in for a weightings rejig within Paris's CAC 40 benchmark next week, came off 3.1 per cent at €144.90. Repsol lost 1.3 per cent at €15.89 and in late trading Eni was 3 per cent lower at €13.05.
Motor stocks, seen as an early beneficiary should the US economy stage a rebound next year, had another solid session.
DaimlerChrysler rose 0.6 per cent to €50 and Volkswagen 1.2 per cent to €53.22. Renault surged 4.7 per cent to €41.11, helped by an upbeat trading statement from Nissan, the Japanese car producer in which it has a near 37 per cent stake.
Top management claims that passenger numbers, hit hard in the immediate aftermath of September 11th, had stabilised failed to stem downward drift at Lufthansa. The airline shed 0.6 per cent at €15.30. Crossair fell to 239 Swiss francs before settling off 5.6 per cent at 255 Swiss francs on the news that one of its fleet had crashed near Zurich.
Among retailers, Carrefour rose 1.6 per cent to €58.80 after Goldman Sachs upgraded the supermarkets group to "trading buy" and revised its target price to €70. Cuts in earnings forecasts at Merrill Lynch sent Pinault Printemps Redoubte down 3.2 per cent to €143.50.
Steel leader ThyssenKrupp gained 3.4 per cent at €16.05 after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to "recommended list". The broker expects plans for structural change to be kick-started next year by share stake disposals.
