Rumours of top-level corporate activity continued to swirl through Frankfurt and at the end of a subdued session the leading indices managed to close with modest gains. Having traded in negative territory for much of the day, the Xetra Dax index closed 16.75 better at 7,590.53, against a low point for the session of 7,447.71.
The FTSE Eurobloc 100 index fell 1 per cent at 1,410.57 and the FTSE Eurotop 100 index 1.2 per cent at 3,588.41. The FTSE Eurotop 300 index shed 1.2 per cent at 1,531.77. Plans to spin-off its non-tourism operations and create an e-commerce division sent Preussag smartly ahead. And BMW continued to gain from takeover talk. But Deutsche Telekom and SAP, both firm markets in recent sessions, ran into widespread profit-taking.
Preussag rose €2.63 to €46.60, while BMW added €1.35 at €27.55 for a two-day rise of 9.2 per cent amid reports that Ford Motors of the US had been added to the list of suitors said to be stalking the group.
Deutsche Bank, which added to its recent run of big Internet alliances with news of links with software leader SAP, gained a further €4.67 to €85.22. Utility RWE, the subject of rumours about Internet data transfer, gained 77 cents to €34.76.
Siemens, which denied reports that it planned significant disposals in order to concentrate on core IT and communications operations, fell to €152.11 before recovering at the close to €163, up €2.97.
But sentiment was, for the most part, finely poised. Market heavyweight Deutsche Telekom gave up €1.51 at €87.49 and SAP 85 cents at €870.10.
Paris fell back through the 6,000 as the CAC-40 index extended its losses to 3 per cent in two days. The benchmark ended off 95.44 at 5,967.28.
Canal Plus fell €17.90 or 6.6 per cent to €255 and Lagardere €4.25 to €90.70. Equant came off €3.70 at €114.30, although in each case trading volume, partly subdued by the absence of Wall Street, was well below average.
France Telecom slipped €4.90 to €159.10 and luxury goods leader LVMH €10.20 at €366. Alcatel, which spent the session being increasingly linked in with a takeover bid for Newbridge Networks of Canada, lost €3.40 at €236.40 for a two-day decline of nearly 9 per cent.
Amsterdam ended 5.83 lower at 649.34 on the AEX after steady selling of top blue chips in the wake of Friday's realignment of the benchmark weightings.
Madrid mirrored the broad trend across Europe, slipping lower on sporadic profit-taking to push the Ibex 35 index down 107.7 at 12,260.3.
Milan ended 436 lower at 31,759 on the Mibtel index with blue-chip losses outweighing a flurry of upside activity among Internet-related stocks.
