LONDON, Nov 29 (AFP) - European shares finished the day Monday mostly lower, off intra-day highs, as weakness in US mega-retailer Wal-Mart and a spike in the price of crude weighed on sentiment.
The London FTSE 100 index rose 0.18 percent to finish at 4,749.80 points, the Frankfurt DAX 30 fell 0.18 percent to 4,146.98 and the Paris CAC 40 edged down 0.04 percent to 3,780.61.
The euro stood at 1.3277 dollars after shooting to an all-time peak of 1.3329 dollars on Friday.
Meanwhile in New York, Wall Street turned sharply lower as the November sales warning by Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, cast a pall on an otherwise solid start to the holiday shopping season.
Also dampening spirits was weakness in the bond market, sparked by concern US interest rates may have to rise in order to stoke the appetite of foreign investors for domestic assets.
And the mood was further hit as oil climbed back toward 50 dollars a barrel as the weather turned colder in the United States, fueling supply concerns.
By London's close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 91.50 points at 10,430.40.
Back in Europe, profit taking set in late in the session.
"After having been higher for the most part today, we went into the red for three reasons really: Wall Street's down; the dollar started to slide again towards the end of the session; and oil's looking a bit higher," a Paris-based dealer said.
In Paris, EADS closed down 1.04 percent at 22.83 euros, coming off early gains as it deferred a decision on launching a competitor to Boeing's planned 7E7, even though most investors reckon the Airbus project will go ahead.
Defence group BAE Systems, which holds the 20 percent of Airbus that EADS does not own, shot up 1.65 percent to 247 pence in London.
Dexia was down 1.33 percent at 16.35 euros in Paris after the bank over the weekend suspended plans to merge with Italy's Sanpaolo.
"The decision not to take the talks further makes a lot of sense," a Morgan Stanley analyst said, noting Dexia had argued there was little industrial logic to a deal between the two companies.
In Frankfurt, HypoVereinsbank was the top blue-chips gainer, adding 1.82 percent at 16.79 euros, as investors cheered the bank's decision to reshuffle its management board, with hopes chiefly pinned on the German operations.
Germany's second-largest bank said it appointed former Citibank Germany chief executive Christine Licci and the current CEO of Hypo Real Estate Bank, Johann Berger, as co-heads of its German operations, effective January 17, 2005.
Elsewhere in Europe, other stock markets also closed lower. The Swiss SMI fell 0.52 percent to 5,519.5 points and the Amsterdam AEX lost 0.18 percent at 339.60 points.
The Brussels Bel-20 slipped 0.50 percent to 2,866.86 points, the Madrid Ibex-35 shed 0.27 percent at 8,715.5 and the Milan Mib 30 dropped 0.31 percent to 29,680.0.
Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei-225 index had closed 1.33 percent higher at 10,977.89 points as investors, encouraged by steadier forex markets, looked for bargains after recent sustained losses.
11/29/2004 19:26 GMT - AFP