Eurostocks Flat, Oil Edges Higher
With U.S. markets closed, trading light, crude prices rise on supply fears, boost oil firms.
European shares drifted on Monday in wafer-thin dealings as Wall Street shut for Independence Day, but oil and telecom groups edged higher while investors hoped a new U.S. earnings season would give rangebound indices a lift.
The FTSE Eurotop 300 index ended off 0.1 percent at 988.03 points, with three issues falling for every two that rose. Dealings totaled 1.3 billion, barely half the daily average.
The benchmark has been locked in a wide range for most of the year. The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index ended virtually unchanged at 2,784,92 points.
Analysts said the market was waiting for the earnings season to kick off in the United States later this week, with U.S. aluminum producer Alcoa and Internet portal Yahoo! reporting on Wednesday, and General Electric on Friday.
Lehman Brothers bank said positive earnings surprises in Europe will become less plentiful as global economic growth slows, and analysts have already bumped up their forecasts for earnings growth.
Oils rose as the price of crude jumped one percent to $36.33 a barrel in London after a pipeline attack in Iraq cut exports, and concern grew that OPEC producers may not hike output.
News that a group of creditor banks for Russian oil major YUKOS had declared the company in default on a $1 billion loan also raised the specter of disrupted supplies.
Shares in oil firms such as Statoil, Total, BP and Repsol all gained.
Airlines, telecoms rise
Irish no-frills airline Ryanair Holdings Plc saw a 24 percent increase in its passenger numbers in June to 2.27 million, lifting the stock 2.3 percent to 4.75.
Rival easyJet gained 0.8 percent to 158 pence after a report that founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou might take the company private.
But British Airways eased two percent to 269-1/2 pence as concerns over higher fuel prices overshadowed a 4.2 percent increase in June passenger traffic.
Elsewhere in the airlines and aerospace sector, Smith Barney upgraded its rating on UK defense group BAE Systems to "buy" from "hold," saying that risks attached to the firm were decreasing. The shares gained one percent to 215-1/4 pence.
Fixed-line telecom groups pushed ahead as investment bank Credit Suisse First Boston upgraded its rating on Deutsche Telekom to "outperform," dealers said.
Deutsche Telekom shares rose 0.5 percent to 14.32.
France Telecom was up 0.8 percent at 21.08 as bookrunners said the group's planned listing of its PagesJaunes directory unit had met with keen demand from small investors and had been snapped up by institutions.
France Telecom plans to sell up to 43 percent of PagesJaunes to raise up to 1.79 billion at a time when some companies have had to slash their offering prices or postponed their float entirely.
Telefonica in Spain and Britain's BT Group also advanced as Lehman Brothers said telecom sector earnings should continue to beat the market.
Meanwhile, shares in French heavy engineering company Alstom rallied 7.7 percent to 0.97. The company expects to launch a long-expected 1.5 billion - 2.2 billion capital increase next week if the plan, part of a rescue package, is approved by shareholders on Friday, a source told Reuters.
In addition to telecoms and oils, utilities, tobacco and real estate were among the stronger sectors on Monday.
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