By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Here are some of the companies whose
shares are making notable moves in Thursday's European trading
session.
Gainers
Shares of Direct Line Insurance Group PLC climbed 1% after the
insurer said it is selling its international unit to Spanish
insurer Mapfre SA for 550 million euros ($705.62 million) and will
return the proceeds to shareholders.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) added 0.9% after the bank
said its Chairman Philip Hampton will step down during 2015 to
become new chairman at GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK). GSK shares were
up 0.8%.
Shares of Cairn Energy PLC picked up 3.8%. The oil-and-gas
company said it has agreed to sell a 10% stake in the Catcher
development and adjacent area in the North Sea in an effort to
reduce its capital expenditure.
Air France-KLM rose 2.3% after the airline said it has given up
on plans to expand its Transavia low-cost airline across Europe, in
a bid to halt a strike by its French pilots.
Decliners
Shares of Hennes & Mauritz AB slid 3.6% after the Swedish
fashion retailer said sales in the fiscal fourth quarter got off to
a slow start.
Hargreaves Lansdown PLC dropped 3.6% after RBC Capital Markets
cut the asset manager to sector perform from outperform.
Danone SA gave up 1.7% after J.P. Morgan Cazenove downgraded the
French yogurt maker to underweight from neutral. The analysts said
recent data pointing to a potential slowdown in the U.S. and Russia
as well as uncertainties in China led to the downgrade.
Shares of Hammerson PLC dropped 3.5% after the retail landlord
said it will raise around 400 million pounds ($652.8 million) by
issuing new shares to buy 40% of Highcross Shopping Centre in
Leicester.
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