Eurofirst makes fractional gain

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up on Wednesday, but by only 0.3 points to 1,276.47 after being in negative territory for most of the session.

The banking sector was mixed. Deutsche Bank added 0.6 percent to €84.61 when it said that it had prevailed in a bidding war for Berliner Bank and will buy it for €681 billion. The Bank of Cyprus lost 7.6 percent to €3.99 when it announced that it will enter the bidding war for Greek bank Emporiki. The loss came as investors wondered how Bank of Cyprus will fund its offer, which must exceed Credit Agricole’s all cash bid of €3.1 billion. Emporiki dropped 0.4 percent to €27.20. Alpha Bank, also said to be thinking about bidding for Emporiki, lost 3.5 percent to €19.24. Meanwhile, the National Bank of Greece was down 3.9 percent to €27.10 on the aftereffects of a €3 billion cash call to fund its purchase of Finansbank of Turkey.

Aerospace group EADS was down 2.5 percent on the day to €20.92 when the prime minister of France said that the state wishes to exert more control over the company in the wake of announced delays in delivery of its new A380 superjumbo jet.

The automobile manufacturing sector saw losses over the day after declines by US companies Ford and General Motors. Peugeot fell 2.3 percent to €48.25 on comments from Oddo Securities that the carmaker could miss its first-half target for an operating profit margin of 2.8 percent. Volkswagen and Renault also saw declines, as VW lost 1.9 percent to €52.68 and Renault dropped 1.2 percent to €84.65.

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