LONDON (AFP) - European stock markets were little changed in early trading as a rise by the euro to new record highs against the dollar spread jitters about the outlook for eurozone company profits, dealers said.
The London FTSE 100 index dipped 0.20 percent to 4,730.10 points, the Frankfurt DAX rose 0.23 percent to 4,072.85 points while in Paris the CAC 40 edged ahead 0.05 percent to 3,783.03 points.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares gained 0.12 percent to 2,878.13 points.
The euro reached a new all-time summit of 1.2987 dollars in early European trading as markets showed concern over the swelling US trade and budget deficits.
The euro later stood at 1.2945 dollars.
Despite the dollar`s woes, analysts said confidence was building on US and European stock markets, which have enjoyed a decent run in the wake of the US presidential elections, helped also by a sharp fall in oil prices.
"Investors are slowly conquering the `wall of worry`," said Lehman Brothers European equity strategist Ian Scott.
"Two weeks ago, the list of factors constraining stocks was a good deal longer than it currently is.
"There was the uncertainty surrounding the US election, high and rising oil prices, as well as the stuttering global economic recovery. Now, in our view, there is much less to justify the historically high risk premiums still baked into global equity valuations," he wrote in a note to clients.
Among European companies in the news, shares in British Airways lost 1.34 percent to 221.5 pence as the carrier`s quarterly results failed to boost the stock despite being at the top end of expectations.
BT Group dropped 1.43 percent to 189.5 pence after announcing it is to buy Californian telecoms group Infonet Services Corp for 965 million dollars (744 million euros).
BT is offering 2.06 dollars per share to the stockholders of Infonet, which include Dutch Royal KPN NV, Swedish-Finnish TeliaSonera AB, Spain`s Telefonica SA, Swisscom AG, KDDI Corp of Japan and Telstra of Australia.
This represents a premium of 23 percent to the average price of Infonet shares over the past three months.
Henkel shares gained 2.30 percent to 61.33 euros in Frankfurt after the German maker of consumer chemical products posted an 11-percent rise in third quarter net profit, with sales helped by the acquisition of US group Dial.
Net profit rose to 131 million euros (170 million dollars) in the quarter from 118 million in the same quarter last year, beating analysts expectations in a range of 116-128 million euros.
11/08/2004 - 12:51 GMT - AFP