LONDON - Leading European shares finished with mixed fortunes Monday, pressured by jitters over high oil prices and buoyed in Frankfurt by Lufthansa's takeover plans for Swiss International Air Lines.
The London FTSE 100 index fell 0.14 percent to 4,975.0 points, the Frankfurt DAX 30 rose 0.16 percent to 4,367.30 points and the Paris CAC 40 edged 0.02 percent lower to 4,048.55.
The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares closed virtually flat, rising 0.01 percent to 3,060.72 points.
The euro stood at 1.3344 against the dollar.
Meanwhile, Wall Street was a touch higher as a flurry of deals, a new chief executive at Disney and a slight easing in oil prices gave some support to sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up around seven points at 10,781.
Oil continued to hold centre stage, as Brent crude futures hovered around 53 dollars a barrel on the back of a still buoyant outlook for global demand.
But prices dipped slightly after Saudi Arabia said it may hike production ahead of the OPEC meeting in Iran on Wednesday.
In London, financials helped to drag the FTSE 100 lower, with Schroders down 1.02 percent at 773 pence, Amvescap off 0.56 percent at 353.5, Man Group off 0.89 percent at 1,453 while Old Mutual shed 1.60 percent at 138.75.
Northern Rock lost 1.06 percent at 791 pence after Deutsche Bank removed the mortgage bank from its top pick list, while French bank Societe Generale recommended a switch out of the British group into Alliance and Leicester.
Mining group Antofagasta was another casualty, down 1.41 percent at 1,327 pence ahead of results Tuesday, while British Airways fell 1.34 percent to 275.50, hit by the high price of crude.
Unlike the rest of the airline stocks, which were hit by higher oil prices, German flag carrier Lufthansa was the second biggest DAX gainer on its announcement that it was in talks to acquire Swiss.
Dealers said Lufthansa's renewed attempt to acquire Swiss had been well received by investors, who believed the German airline may succeed this time after it gave up earlier demands for the majority shareholders to inject fresh capital before any sale.
Lufthansa closed 1.52 percent higher at 11.34 euros in Frankfurt.
Deutsche Boerse was the top DAX performer, adding 1.53 percent at 57.87.
Deutsche Boerse has asked the British Office of Fair Trading and the German Cartel Office to continue their investigations into a possible merger with the London Stock Exchange, despite the German group having withdrawn its pre-conditional 530 pence per share offer last weekend.
In Paris, pharmaceuticals group Sanofi-Aventis fell 0.56 percent to 61.85 euros after it announced plans late Friday to file a lawsuit in order to protect its Lovenox blockbuster drug from generic competition in Canada.
Analysts said that while the potential impact on Lovenox sales in Canada would be minimal, approval of the generic competitor could have a negative influence on Sanofi's efforts to protect Lovenox from generics in the United States, where its lawsuit to defend Lovenox opens in September.
Elsewhere in Europe, the Swiss SMI slipped 0.15 percent to 5,963 points.
The Amsterdam AEX was unchanged at 372.16 points, the Brussels Bel-20 fell 0.58 percent to 3,081.07, the Madrid Ibex-35 dropped 0.36 percent to 9,296.5 and the Milan SP/Mib rose 0.12 percent to 31,717.0.
Earlier in Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei-225 index closed 0.62 percent lower at 11,850.25 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed up 0.11 percent at 13,906.85.
03/14/2005 19:37 GMT