Interest rate fears take Frankfurt and Paris down

Shares in Frankfurt traded narrowly in a session dominated by low volumes. Technology stocks rallied but financials continued to fret about the outlook for European interest rates.

SAP gained €4.19 at €265.99 and Siemens 41 cents at €173.61. Infineon rose €3.30 to €77 and Epcos put on €5.35 at €103.75. Even Deutsche Telekom, a determinedly weak market for most of August, found buyers, adding 60 cents at €43.

In financials, Allianz lost €7.20 at €381 and Munich Re €3.50 at €320 among insurers, amid broad uncertainty before next week's meeting of the European Central Bank monetary committee. Banks were equally nervous. Deutsche Bank lost €1.65 at €99.85 and Dresdner Bank 70 cents at €51.95.

Paris slid further but the brakes were applied by France Telecom, which bounced back from its recent decline. The CAC-40 finished down 39.77 to 6,461.93, hit by profit-taking in Total Fina Elf, which shed €5 to €172. France Telecom's €3.1 rise to €127 allowed it to reclaim from the oil giant the role as the blue-chip index's largest component.

Financial stocks shrank, as fears were stoked of an interest rate hike in the euro zone. Axa dropped €3.40 to €167.70 and Societe Generale eased €1.40 to €66.25.

Amsterdam finished at a record high, with a rally for telecoms leader KPN helping to lift the AEX index 0.74 to 696.18. KPN, which by the close on Wednesday had fallen almost 19 per cent in four days, rebounded €1.16 to €30.51.

Zurich pulled back from Wednesday's high for the year, although Nestle still provided the market with food for thought in the wake of Wednesday's bumper first-half results. It put on another SFr39 to SFr3,769 (€2,437) as analysts showered the group with upgrades.

Milan edged lower in spite of a rebound in the telecoms sector, which had been under pressure fretting about the high costs of UMTS licences. Madrid ceded more ground, taking its losses over seven days to 5.5 per cent. The Ibex-35 index closed down 0.7 per cent at 10,720.1.