Royal Dutch Shell shares decline after earnings; ABB shares also lower By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European shares were in a tight range on Thursday, as oil and gas firms offset gains from the financial sector amid a deluge of corporate earnings. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index (ST:SXXP 237.88, +0.54, +0.23%) rose 0.1% to 237.60. Losses from oil and gas firms limited downside, with Royal Dutch Shell (UK:RDSA 1,849, -58.50, -3.06%) (RDS.A 61.82, -0.94, -1.50%) shares down 3% in London. The firm's third-quarter net attributable income fell 62% to $3.2 billion, or 53 cents a share. On an adjusted basis, earnings fell 73% to $2.99 billion. Analysts had been expecting earnings of $2.56 billion. "Our third-quarter results were affected by the weak global economy," said CEO Peter Voser. "We see some indications that energy demand and pricing are improving, but the outlook remains very uncertain, and we are not expecting a quick recovery," he added. Shares of Italian energy giant Eni (IT:ENI 17.03, -0.53, -3.02%) dropped 3.6%. Its third-quarter net profit tumbled 58% to 1.24 billion euros ($1.8 billion) and oil and natural-gas production fell 4.9% to 1.68 million barrels per day for the third quarter. On a regional basis, the U.K. FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,080, -0.75, -0.02%) declined 0.1% to 5,076.77, the German DAX index (DX:DAX 5,484, -11.89, -0.22%) lost 0.1% to 5,490.32 and the French CAC-40 index (FR:PX1 3,669, +5.07, +0.14%) climbed 0.1% to 3,665.63. Asian shares were weak, while U.S. stock futures were pointing to a mixed open on Wall Street. See Asia Markets Insurance firms and banks were gaining ground in Europe, taking back some losses made this week, with KBC (BE:KBC 29.71, +3.37, +12.78%) shares up 11.9% in Brussels after an upgrade to outperform from Keefe, Bruyette and Woods. The broker believes that the market over-reacted in its read-across from ING's decision to split itself in two. ING (NL:INGA 9.00, +0.46, +5.42%) shares climbed 5.4%. Royal Bank of Scotland (UK:RBS 41.26, +1.70, +4.28%) shares rose 6.3% and Lloyds Banking Group (UK:LLOY 83.51, +3.49, +4.36%) shares rose 5%. Still, Deutsche Bank (DE:DBK 48.18, -0.39, -0.79%) shares were down 1.7%. The firm said that its third-quarter sales and trading revenue amounted to 3.1 billion euros ($4.6 billion). The bank had already reported third-quarter net income of 1.4 billion euros, up from 414 million euros in the third quarter 2008. Shares of German chemicals company BASF (DE:BAS 36.45, -0.38, -1.03%) lost 1.5%. It said third-quarter net profit fell 69% as sales of chemicals and plastics were hurt by lower prices and volumes. ABB (CH:ABBN 19.55, -0.85, -4.17%) shares fell 4%. The Zürich power and automation-technology giant reported third-quarter net income rose 12% on 10% lower revenue. Earnings reached $1.03 billion, or 45 cents a share, from $927 million, or 41 cents, in the year-earlier quarter. Revenue declined to $7.91 billion from $8.79 billion. New orders in the quarter fell 21% to $7.06 billion. "[When] and how quickly capital investments by customers will recover from the downturn" is unclear, ABB said. Lonza (CH:LONN 96.00, -10.80, -10.11%) shares slumped 15.1% after the Swiss-specialty-chemicals group cut is operating profit outlook for 2009 amid order cancellations.

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