LONDON (AFP) - European stock markets drifted lower in early trading as profit-taking set in after recent gains, despite a modest rise on Wall Street and well-received results from cellphone giant Vodafone.
After opening in positive territory, the London FTSE 100 index dipped 0.47 percent to 4,780.50 points in early afternoon trading.
Meanwhile in Frankfurt the DAX 30 shed 0.01 percent to 4,134.27 points and in Paris the CAC 40 fell 0.18 percent to 3,814.27 points.
"The market is in a consolidation period and there are few catalysts to push the CAC-40 out of its current tight trading range," said one Paris dealer at brokerage Global Equities.
The DJ Euro Stoxx index of leading eurozone shares declined by 0.27 percent to 2,890.34 points.
The euro stood at 1.2975 dollars.
Vodafone shares won 0.35 percent to 143.2 pence in London, off early highs, after the British mobile telephone giant doubled its interim dividend and extended its share buyback programme, dealers said.
The group also reported a two-percent fall in half-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to 6.51 billion pounds (9.28 billion euros, 12.03 billion dollars), slightly higher than expected.
French retail giant Carrefour advanced 3.70 percent to 36.67 euros in Paris on hopes that proposed changes to the Galland law on retail pricing will not have as wide-reaching an effect on the group's business as originally feared.
The law bans retailers from selling at a loss, and the planned reworking could reduce retail prices by over two percent. But Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said there would be no major changes to the rules.
In London shares in tobacco and pub groups were under pressure amid expectations the Britain would announce proposals later Tuesday to ban smoking in most public places, though not for several years yet.
Enterprise Inns shed 3.86 percent to 597.5 pence and Punch Taverns lost 2.63 percent to 545.25 pence.
Tobacco groups Gallaher fell by 2.72 percent to 698 pence, Imperial Tobacco by 1.66 percent to 1,300 pence and BAT by 0.64 percent to 860 pence.
In New York shares notched up small gains on Monday after finishing on a high note last week, with the tech sector outshining blue-chips.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.11 percent at 10,550.24 points, while the tech-rich Nasdaq rose 0.42 percent to 2,094.09 points.
The broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index fell 0.03 percent to 1,183.81 points.
In Tokyo the Nikkei-225 index lost 0.59 percent to 11,161.75 points on Tuesday, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index closed down 1.34 percent at 13,746.08.
11/16/2004 - 12:55 GMT - AFP