European markets ended the week as they began it, drifting lower in directionless trade.
Frankfurt followed Wall Street down in late trading amid a re-run of rumours about a merger of Dresdner Bank and Commerzbank. Commerzbank and Dresdner Bank pushed steadily higher in robust trading volumes which suggested the merger speculation was not entirely hot air.
However, most traders had reservations about the deal. Dresdner pulled out of a merger with Deutsche Bank earlier this year. "There is a lot of politics in this," said one broker.
Dresdner was 18 cents better at €47.20 after a session high of €48.50 and Commerzbank added €1.20 at €41. Allianz, which has a 22 per cent stake in Dresdner, lost 90 cents at €384.20.
SAP ran into profit-taking, sliding €11.70 to €615.50. The stock jumped 9 per cent over the previous two sessions on contract and deal news.
In trading unsettled by the expiry of the three main derivatives contracts, the Xetra DAX index was off 73.36 at 7,255.26 at 5.30 p.m. German time.
Paris again saw heavy trading in Vivendi, which rallied modestly after a two-day decline of 15 per cent, sparked by confirmation it was hammering out the final details of a takeover bid for Canada's Seagram.
Vivendi ended 55 cents better at €99 in 6.9 million shares traded. Pernod Ricard jumped €5.20 or 9.1 per cent to €62.50 amid speculation that it would be a front-runner to acquire Seagram's drinks business should Vivendi complete a takeover and put parts of the Canadian group up for sale.
The CAC-40 index finished 56.72 lower at 6,456.26.
Amsterdam was led lower by financials and the AEX index ended off 3.06 at 682.45. ING shed 60 cents at €67 and ABN Amro 71 cents or 2.7 per cent at €25.57.
Aegon fell back 86 cents at €40.30, having surged 8 per cent on Thursday ahead of a Deutsche Bank upgrade to "buy" and an increase in target price to €46.
Zurich edged higher on a day of heavy options-related trade ahead of the expiry of options, index options and index futures on Eurex. The SMI index closed up 17.7 at 7,845.6.
Lisbon had a busy session as the market turned its attention to takeovers, real and rumoured. The PS120 index edged 8.01 lower to 12,527.14.
