Market Update
European markets were little changed Friday with stocks moving mostly on specific news.
The FTSE was up 0.3%. The CAC 40 Paris traded flat while the DAX edged 0.1% higher.
Data showed Germany’s producer price index fell unexpectedly in May to 0.2% from 0.1% in April.
Italy reported some upbeat data on industrial orders.
Stocks on the Move
Shire PLC surged 11% after the company rejected a $46 billion bid from U.S. drug major AbbVie. Shire has earlier rebuffed two bids from AbbVie.
Norway’s Telenor shed almost a percent after the country’s trade minister said the government would ask Parliament to cut its stake in the telecom company as well as in industrial group Kongsberg Gruppen.
Over in Paris, state-owned EDF dropped about 2% after a broker downgrade following the government’s decision to cancel a proposed increase in electricity prices.