Remy Cointreau drops after earnings; Nestle hit by downgrade
By Simon Kennedy, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — European stock markets struggled for direction Tuesday as investors continued to assess the impact of Ireland’s 85 billion euro ($111 billion) bailout, with Remy Cointreau SA and Nestle SA among the main fallers.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index (ST:STOXX600 262.28, +0.12, +0.05%) rose 0.1% to 262.34. The move came after the index slumped 1.7% on Monday amid fears that the Irish rescue would do little to prevent the debt crisis from spreading to Portugal and Spain.
The U.K.’s FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,556, +4.95, +0.09%) edged up 0.2% to 5,561.48 as gains for some mining and oil stocks provided a little support.
Shares in Rio Tinto PLC (UK:RIO 4,063, +20.00, +0.50%) (RIO 64.45, -1.06, -1.62%) rose 0.8% and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (UK:RDSA 1,949, +3.50, +0.18%) (RDS.A 61.40, -0.83, -1.33%) added 0.6%.
The German DAX 30 index (DX:DAX 6,704, +6.23, +0.09%) rose 0.1% to 6,704.82 and the French CAC 40 index (FR:PX1 3,622, -14.86, -0.41%) fell 0.2% to 3,630.01.
Markets in the peripheral euro-zone countries continued to underperform.
The Irish ISEQ index dropped 0.2% to 2,650.57, Portugal’s PSI 20 dropped 0.2% and Spain’s IBEX 35 index fell 0.4%.
Among stocks in focus Tuesday, shares in Remy Cointreau (FR:RCO 50.11, -2.00, -3.84%) dropped 4.5% in Paris after the French spirits group said its profit dropped sharply in the first half of the fiscal year due to an impairment charge.
German steel maker ThyssenKrupp (DE:TKA 29.37, -0.56, -1.87%) was another faller, dropping 1.6% after it reported its fiscal 2010 results.
Nestle (CH:NESN 55.00, -0.75, -1.35%) fell 1.3% in Swiss trading after the stock was downgraded to neutral from outperform by Credit Suisse, which said it was “time to draw breath” with the shares trading at a significant premium to peers.
Shares in engineering group ABB Ltd (CH:ABBN 19.48, -0.04, -0.20%) (SE:ABB 137.50, +0.60, +0.44%) rose around 1% after the company said it will acquire Baldor Electric Co. (BEZ 45.11, -0.46, -1.01%) in an all-cash deal worth $4.2 billion, including the assumption of $1.1 billion of net debt.
The deal price represents a 41% premium to the closing price on Monday.
