Stocks continue to slide for fourth successive day

Eurostoxx 50:2,766.80 (-22.31) Frankfurt DAX:7,089.63 (-19.40) Paris CAC:3,863.40 (-27.28)

EUROPEAN STOCKS retreated for a fourth straight day yesterday, pulling the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 Index to a 10-week low, amid growing concern that the global economy is weakening.

National benchmark indexes fell in 14 of the 16 western European markets trading. Germany’s DAX Index slid 0.3 per cent, France’s CAC 40 lost 0.7 per cent, while the UK’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.1 per cent as mining shares advanced.

Markets in Sweden and Ireland were closed for a holiday.

Unione di Banche Italiane, the Italian bank that yesterday began a rights offer, retreated 4 per cent to €4.60, France’s Societe Generale declined 2.3 per cent to €40.06 and Lloyds Banking Group slid 3.6 per cent to €46.96, as a gauge of banks retreated to their lowest since July. A measure of banks had the biggest drop among 19 industry groups in the Stoxx 600.

Air France slipped 1.6 per cent to €11.09 and Lufthansa lost 1 per cent to €14.54 after a trade group cut the industry’s profit forecast. The International Air Transport Association cut its 2011 industry profit forecast by 54 per cent.

EON fell 2.3 per cent to €18.40 and RWE slid 0.7 per cent to €37.92. Analysts at Commerzbank reduced their share-price estimates for Germany’s largest utilities by 10 per cent “to reflect potential additional burdens” related to the government’s decision to exit nuclear power.

Aegis Group climbed 6.9 per cent to 151 pence after the UK buyer of advertising space said it is in talks about selling its market research unit Synovate to French polling company Ipsos.

Bayer advanced 1.6 per cent to €56.29 after the phase III Alsympca trial evaluating its investigational compound radium-223 chloride in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer and bone metastases was found to significantly improve overall survival.

ProSiebenSat.1 Media rose 3.7 per cent to €17.97 as analysts at Royal Bank of Scotland Group rated Germany’s biggest private broadcaster “buy” in new coverage.

Separately, Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported that Permira Holdings Ltd was under no pressure to sell its stake in the broadcaster, quoting the head of the German operations, Joerg Rockenhaeuser. – (Bloomberg)