MW: European shares in tight range as Basilea drops
By Simon Kennedy, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stocks traded in a tight range Wednesday after setting fresh 14-month highs in the previous session, with Swiss pharmaceutical company Basilea falling sharply after a setback on a key drug.
The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index fell 0.1% to 253.97 after Tuesday marked the index's highest close since October 2008.
Among the main country indexes, the German DAX 30 index fell 0.1% to 6,004.58, the French CAC 40 index dipped 0.03% to 3,959.52 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index rose 0.1% to 5,441.15.
Basilea was the standout faller, with its shares dropping 28% after the company, which holds the patent on ceftobiprole, said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had rejected Johnson & Johnson's application to market the drug.
The FDA said some of the data underpinning the drug application were "unreliable or unverifiable," and recommended that two new studies be carried out, according to a statement from Basilea.
There were relatively few other big movers in Europe, though Bank of Ireland lost 2.7% in Dublin in a mixed session for European bank stocks.
Airlines were also mostly lower, with Ryanair Holdings down 1.5% and easyJet down 1% in London and Air France-KLM down 0.6% in Paris.
Shares in Japan Airlines had earlier plunged around 25% in Tokyo on concerns that the struggling group may file for bankruptcy protection.
Among stocks rising Wednesday was medical-supplies distributor Euromedis Group , which gained 9.6% in Paris after reporting an 11% rise in its fiscal first-quarter revenue.
