By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Europe's benchmark stock index moved
lower on Monday, with AstraZeneca PLC leading the charge south
after rejecting a sweetened Pfizer Inc. offer, while mining firms
declined on added signs of a slowdown in the Chinese housing
market.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index gave up 0.1% to close at 338.51, but
came off session lows after a higher open for U.S. stocks. The
pan-European index on Friday marked its fifth straight winning
week.
Posting the biggest loss in the benchmark Monday, AstraZeneca
shares (AZN) tumbled 11% after the U.K. drug maker rejected a
"final" offer from Pfizer Inc. (PFE) at 55 pounds a share ($92.48).
AstraZeneca's Chairman Leif Johansson said the offer is only a
minor improvement over the previous bids and continued "to fall
short."
Some mining firms were also adding pressure in Europe, falling
on signs that the Chinese real-estate market continues to cool.
Beijing's prices for second-home purchases dropped in April by the
most in two years, while newly-built residential-housing price
gains eased for the sixth straight month, according to data from
China's National Bureau of Statistics.
Shares of Rio Tinto PLC (RIO) dropped 1.9% and BHP Billiton PLC (BHP) gave up 0.6%.
The AstraZeneca slide and the losses for miners weighed on the
FTSE 100 index . The U.K.'s benchmark erased 0.2% to close at
6,844.55.
More broadly, investors watched the latest flare-up in tensions
between Ukraine and Russia, with clashes in Ukraine's east
continuing over the weekend.
"With the Ukrainian presidential election scheduled for May 25,
markets are worrying the tensions will rise ahead of the elections
as rebels who want to vote in eastern parts of Ukraine say they
want to join Russia," market strategists at ETX Capital said in a
note.
Italian slide
Among country's indexes, Italy's FTSE MIB index fell 1.6% to
20,318.46, as more than 20 companies in the benchmark traded
without the right to their latest dividends, according to
Bloomberg.
Shares of UniCredit SpA lost 1.5%, Banco Popolare SC lost 0.7%,
and Telecom Italia SpA closed down 0.5%.
Germany's DAX 30 index ended 0.3% higher at 9,659.39, and
France's CAC 40 index gained 0.3% to 4,469.76.
Shares of Deutsche Bank AG (DB) shaved off 1.7% in Frankfurt
after the bank said on Sunday it plans to raise 8 billion euros
($10.97 billion), with EUR1.75 billion coming from Qatar's
Paramount Holdings Services Ltd.
Also in Frankfurt, shares of K+S AG rose 1.7% to EUR26.50 a
share after Citigroup lifted its price target on the chemicals firm
to EUR28 from EUR23.
And in Paris, shares of GDF Suez SA picked up 1.3% after the
power group said it signed a deal to supply Japan's Tohoku Electric
Power Co. liquefied natural gas from the U.S., over a 20-year
period.
Outside the major country-specific indexes, shares of Ryanair
Holdings PLC rallied 11% after the budget airliner said profit
should grow this fiscal year, after reporting a drop in full-year
profit for the year ending March 31. The jump in Ryanair shares
helped push Ireland's ISEQ Overall Index up 2.6% to 4,776.61.
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