Dramatic declines in Paris for Michelin and Rhone-Poulenc tipped the balance of a mixed trading day, sending the CAC-40 index 16.81 lower at 3,698.00.
Michelin was severely deflated by six-monthly results that came in towards the bottom of the forecast range. After last week's bumper numbers from Peugeot, sentiment in the motors sector had been riding something of a bull story.
The tyre leader lost 29.60 French francs or 10.7 per cent to FFr246.40. Renault shed FFr2.50 to FFr280 and Valeo hardened FFr3 to FFr473 ahead of results that came after market hours.
Rhone-Poulenc crumpled after the group confirmed that the US Food and Drug Administration had made a production ruling on Centeon, a US joint venture.
The shares fell FFr23 or 8.6 per cent to FFr246.10 in heavy turnover of FFr1.35bn as brokers fretted about the negative implications for Rhone's earnings. Problems at Centeon affected Rhone's total 1997 results.
Frankfurt was lower in muted trade, awaiting further clues on US monetary policy from yesterday's testimony by US Fed chairman Mr Alan Greenspan to the House banking committee. The Xetra Dax index lost 41.95 to 4,851.56.
Among exporters hit by the weak dollar, BMW lost 41 deutschmarks to DM1,205.00.
Bank shares enjoyed an early rally after ING Group said it had increased its stake in BHF Bank to 39 per cent from 4.5 per cent, but subsequently fell with the rest of the market. BHF Bank was suspended but Commerzbank gave up DM1.76 to DM50.90.
Amsterdam came off 18.96 at 1,014.70 on the AEX index. Akzo Nobel and KLM managed to sidestep the broad downturn.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)