Docks Takeover Leads to Buying
April 04, 2011
Strong interest in insurer Assurances Generale de France after its announcement of asset sales late Monday also lifted the market. The CAC 40 index of most actively traded shares gained 21.9 points to 1982.23 points. Volume remained light at 3.65 billion francs worth of shares traded. Traders said the release early Tuesday of industrial production data had little effect on the market. France's industrial production in May rose 0.5% from April, but fell 0.2% when energy and food and agriculture industry activities were excluded, said national statistics bureau INSEE. Economists predicted that overall production would rise around 0.3% to 0.4%. Docks de France only accepted the takeover offer after it failed to find a viable alternative and after it prevailed upon Auchan to raise its bid to 1,270 francs a share from 1,250 francs a share. Docks de France shares remained suspended Tuesday and weren't expected to trade Wednesday. The company's shares closed at 1,222 francs a share on Friday. On Monday, AGF, the recently privatized insurer, reported recently selling real estate assets worth a total of 5.30 billion francs. This helped AGF more than meet the target for such sales that it set itself. AGF rose 7.8 francs to 136 francs a share. However, food retailers were the sector of choice for the day. Casino's shares rose 6.2 francs to 204.7. Rival Promodes moved up 32 francs to 1326 and Carrefour's shared climbed 68 to 2693 francs a share. Also rising, insurer Union des Assurances de Paris gained 2.3 to 104.9 francs after its 40%-owned reinsurance unit, Scor, said it had acquired Allstate's reinsurance business in the U.S. Scor ended flat at 200 francs a share. On the downside, leisure company Euro Disney, which runs the Disneyland Paris theme park, saw its shares fall 1.25 to 12.1 francs a share in light volume as late selling drove the price downward. Early Tuesday, the company reported that fiscal third-quarter net profit slipped to 147 million francs from 170 million the prior year. Sales, however, rose 4.5%, and operating profit rose 60% to 146 million francs. Traders said the earnings figures were below analysts' expectations.
VastPress 2011 Vastopolis
