Amsterdam shares close lower, led down by Vedior on profit taking UPDATE

Amsterdam shares close lower, led down by Vedior on profit taking UPDATE

	Published : Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:23 By : Agencies Print this Story

(Updating with full report)

AMSTERDAM (Thomson Financial) - Shares in Amsterdam closed lower, led down by staffing stock Vedior on profit taking, and as investors remained concerned about the sub-prime lending market.

The AEX closed 1.39 points or 0.25 pct lower at 553.56, after trading in the range 549.34-554.48.

Government bonds traded higher while the euro stood at 1.3756 usd versus 1.3718 usd late yesterday.

Vedior fell 3.66 pct to 21.84 eur, with one Amsterdam-based analyst saying the shares were down on profit-taking and the market's general bearish sentiment.

Fellow staffer Randstad fell 1.21 pct to 61.84 eur, while USG People was 1.55 pct off at 34.99 eur.

Unibail-Rodamco was off 1.04 pct at 185.25 eur. The company said today that it now owns 95.74 pct of all Rodamco Europe shares and will soon initiate a squeeze-out procedure for all remaining shares, resulting in a delisting from three Euronext exchanges and Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

Among financials, Aegon was off 2.07 pct at 14.16, while Fortis fell 0.74 pct to 30.70 eur. Earlier, the Belgo-Dutch bancassurer said it was planning a 2 bln eur exchangeable notes issue to partially fund its bid, as part of a Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium, for ABN Amro.

ING was off 0.68 pct at 32.21 eur, while ABN Amro rose 0.44 pct to 34.61. Earlier, the Dutch shareholders' association, the VEB, said it is asking Amsterdam's Enterprise Court to appoint independent supervisors to the ABN Amro board on grounds that shareholders have lost faith in management.

On the midcap, Fugro fell 0.54 pct to 49.77 eur. The company said earlier it has won a 16.9 mln eur airborne survey project contract in Nigeria, which was welcomed by analysts.

Unilever led blue chip gainers, gaining 2.68 pct to 24.12 eur, on ongoing speculation about further consolidation in the food sector, following Danone's 12.3 bln eur takeover offer for Dutch peer Numico.

ArcelorMittal added 1.26 pct to 48.32 eur. Several London-based dealers said they were hearing that ArcelorMittal was mulling a 280-eur-per-share bid for Vallourec, the French maker of steel pipes.

Corio led midcap gainers, up 0.50 pct at 56.55 eur, following an upgrade to 'buy' from 'hold' at ABN Amro and on the back of yesterday's announcement that it had bought a shopping centre in Turkey for 44 mln eur.

Mike Croall; mike.croall@thomson.com

mc/lam

The copying, republication or redistribution of AFX News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of AFX News.