By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets ended the week on
a soft note, but pulled off the day's lows as investors cast aside
geopolitical concerns tied to the crash of a Malaysia Airlines jet
in Ukraine a day earlier.
Shares of Shire PLC climbed 4% after U.S. drug maker AbbVie Inc.
(ABBV) confirmed it will buy the London-listed pharmaceutical firm
in a deal valued at $54 billion.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index closed down 0.1% at 339.66, adding to
a 0.9% decline from Thursday. Indexes pared losses as U.S. stocks
opened higher. The U.K. FTSE 100 ended with small gains and near
the day's highs.
Russia's MICEX index dropped 1.3% to 1,422.50, its a fifth
straight day in the red. Read: Russian stocks slide after MH17
crash
The losses came after a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet en route
to Kuala Lumpur from Amsterdam was downed over eastern Ukraine by a
surface-to-air missile on Thursday, killing everyone on board. Both
Ukraine and Russia deny responsibility and blame each other for the
tragedy.
U.S. intelligence agencies say evidence leads them to believe
that separatists in eastern Ukraine or the Russian military
launched the missile that downed Flight MH17.
Europe movers
Among national markets, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 index rose 0.2% to
6,749.45, and France's CAC 40 index added 0.4% at 4,335.31. But
Germany's DAX 30 index gave up 0.4% to 9,720.02.
U.K. banking shares were mixed after the country's antitrust
authority called for an in-depth investigations into competition in
the banking market. The U.K retail and business banking is
dominated by four banks: Lloyds Banking Group PLC (LYG), which
added 0.3%; Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS), which fell
1.4%; HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBC) , which ended unchanged; and
Barclays PLC (BCS), which rose 0.8%.
British Land Co. PLC climbed 2.4% as Barclays increased its
price target on the company to 936 pence from 695 pence, according
to Dow Jones Newswires.
Elsewhere, Volvo AB shares slumped 5% after the Swedish truck
maker said European demand isn't recovering as fast as expected and
that order intake dropped 6% in the second quarter.
Most airline shares declined in the wake of the MH17 crash, with
Air France-KLM SA down 2% and Deutsche Lufthansa AG 1.1% lower. But
easyJet PLC gained 0.5%.
Daimler AG gave up 1.7% after Credit Suisse downgraded the
German car maker to neutral from outperform.
Shares of LM Ericsson Telefon AB jumped 8.2% after the
mobile-network company reported second-quarter earnings that beat
expectations.
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