Market Report - Europe

Frankfurt DAX:

The Frankfurt stock market closed 1.1 per cent lower after a day of thin trading. The Hang Seng's 2.5 per cent drop, a fall in September Germany industry orders and a quarter-point rise in British interest rates failed to have much impact on the market.

"The market is really lacking impetus at the moment," one Frankfurt trader said. "Orders have been on the sell side all week. It will probably stay within that trend." Almost no economic or corporate news was expected today and traders said that even a midday speech by Federal Reserve chairman Mr Alan Greenspan in Frankfurt was unlikely to enliven the mood.

"There is very little momentum for this market in either direction," one Munich dealer said.

Trading volumes remained thin, underlining the market's lack of inspiration, dealers said.

Paris CAC-40:

French shares ended lower after a lacklustre day which resulted in the CAC index breaking through a key support level but in thin volume.

A soft tone on the dollar, weakness on Wall Street and the troubled Asian stock markets combined to keep fund managers from committing fresh money to Paris equities, traders said.

Tension in Iraq over UN arms inspection, US jobs statistics and French market holidays next Monday and Tuesday, contributed towards keeping investors on the sidelines.

PSA Peugeot Citroen shot ahead by 4.26 per cent to 686 francs with analysts welcoming its nine-month sales figures which rose 6.4 per cent.

France Telecom was up 0.78 per cent to 218.77 francs and SGS- Thomson firmed 0.88 per cent to 444.9.

Milan Mibtel:

Italian shares ended mostly higher after climbing back from the lows towards the end of a slack session dominated by a lack of fresh ideas. Volumes were low with 900 billion lire worth of stocks traded by the time the market was about to close. Saipem closed sharply higher on reports that the ENI subsidiary was favoured to win a contract to lay tubes for a gas pipeline beneath the Black Sea linking Russia and Turkey. Saipem finished 380 lire higher at 10,040 lire.

"Most share markets are still calming down after what happened last week," said a Milan-based equities salesman. "But the market is still volatile and there still seems to be a desire to drive it up."

"Most share markets are still calming down after what happened last week," said a Milan-based equities salesman. "But the market is still volatile and there still seems to be a desire to drive it up."