AstraZeneca drops; SAP rises on back of Oracle results
By Simon Kennedy, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) — European stock markets held steady Friday, shrugging off a downgrade for Ireland as gains for miners and some technology stocks offset heavy losses for pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca PLC.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index (ST:STOXX600 276.48, -1.11, -0.40%) slipped less than 0.1% to 277.36 as European leaders began the second day of a two-day summit. Member countries have agreed to amend the European Union treaty to enable the creation of a permanent stability mechanism.
Peripheral markets were mixed, with Ireland’s ISEQ index rising 0.3% to 2,848.20 as the market shrugged off a five-notch downgrade of government debt by Moody’s Investors Service.
The rating agency slashed Ireland’s sovereign rating to Baa1 from Aa2. The move, however, was in line with the agency’s forecast last month of a multi-notch downgrade that would see Ireland maintain its investment-grade rating.
Portugal’s PSI 20 index rose 0.2%, but Spain’s IBEX 35 fell 0.2% as banking giant Santander (ES:SAN 8.06, -0.08, -0.96%) (STD 10.74, +0.04, +0.37%) slumped 1.2% and Italy’s FTSE MIB index slipped 0.3%.
Bank stocks started the session higher, but quickly turned lower across the continent. Lloyds Banking Group (UK:LLOY 67.66, -1.30, -1.89%) (LYG 4.26, +0.03, +0.71%) fell 1.3% and Natixis (FR:KN 3.56, -0.04, -1.19%) slipped 0.6% in Paris.
Among the core markets, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 index (UK:UKX 5,862, -19.01, -0.32%) edged up 0.1% to 5,885.78, helped by strength among mining stocks as commodity prices rose.
Gains for the U.K. index, however, were limited by a 4.7% drop for shares in AstraZeneca (UK:AZN 2,970, -183.00, -5.80%) (AZN 49.23, -0.05, -0.10%) . The drug giant said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has asked for further analysis of a key study.
Other drug stocks mostly fell after a strong performance over the last few sessions. Merck KGaA (DE:MRK 60.20, -0.54, -0.89%) and Roche Holding (CH:ROG 137.60, -2.40, -1.71%) both dropped 0.5%.
Among other indexes, Germany’s DAX 30 gained (DX:DAX 7,013, -11.77, -0.17%) 0.1% at 7,029.10 and the French CAC 40 rose (FR:PX1 3,885, -3.34, -0.09%) 0.3% to 3,899.48.
Shares in SAP (DE:SAP 37.92, +0.53, +1.42%) rose 1.6% in Frankfurt after strong results from Oracle Corp. (ORCL 30.27, -0.22, -0.72%) .
Analysts at Credit Suisse said Oracle’s strong application license revenue was a good sign for SAP and reinforced the German firm’s recent statements that pent-up demand is driving the return of large deals.
Some other technology stocks were also higher, with Atos Origin (FR:ATO 39.36, +0.87, +2.25%) rising 1.2% in Paris after a volatile couple of sessions.
