Amsterdam shares slightly off at midday; ArcelorMittal, Heijmans slump

Amsterdam shares slightly off at midday; ArcelorMittal, Heijmans slump

	Published : Sun, 14 Oct 2007 20:53 By : Agencies Print this Story

AMSTERDAM (Thomson Financial) - Amsterdam shares were slightly lower at midday, off early morning lows that followed losses in Asia and New York, with ArcelorMittal and Heijmans leading decliners on their respective indices while Wall Street futures pointed to a slightly higher opening in the US later today.

At 12.50 pm, the AEX was 3.00 points or 0.54 pct lower at 555.01 after opening at 553.64 and trading in a range of 552.03-555.25.

Government bonds were higher and the euro stood at 1.4178 usd versus 1.4224 usd late yesterday.

Lead decliner ArcelorMittal traded 2.30 pct lower at 55.20 eur while semiconductor share ASML declined 1.77 pct to 21.68, as the chip-related stocks suffered following a major sell-off in the sector in the US overnight.

ASML's midcap sector peer ASMI was on the rise, adding 0.60 pct at 20.19.

Randstad lost 1.86 pct at 40.53 and Vedior shed 1.11 pct at 16.91 while their midcap peer in the staffing sector USG People dipped 0.47 pct to 23.08.

Unibail-Rodamco was down 1.66 pct at 181.55 while among its real estate peers, Wereldhave outperformed the midcap index with a 0.62 pct rise to 85.83 eur and Corio was 0.02 pct higher at 60.61.

Local real estate listing Nieuwe Steen was 0.26 pct higher at 19.45 after outperforming early in the day after it reported in-line results for the first 9 months of the year.

In the financial sector, Fortis fell 1.49 pct to 23.20, ING lost 0.74 pct at 32.04 and Aegon was off by 0.49 pct at 14.08.

Numico was nearly flat, trading 0.04 pct lower at 54.54 amid new that the European Union has extended the deadline for its inquiry into Danone's purchase of Numico.

Hagemeyer led gainers at midday, rising 2.47 pct to 4.97 eur amid news that 8.2 pct stakeholder Orbis Investment Management called Sonepar's 4.25 eur per share takeover offer for Hagemeyer 'unacceptable,' while it became known that another investor, MF Global Limited, built up a 6.31 pct stake in Hagemeyer by October 5 and sold it by October 8.

KPN climbed 0.79 pct to 12.83, while Heineken was 0.48 pct higher at 46.35 and Reed Elsevier rose 0.53 pct to 13.37.

Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell rose 0.24 pct to 29.16 while oil services group SBM Offshore gained 0.42 pct at 28.76 and its midcap sector peer Fugro declined 0.39 pct at 56.81.

Heijmans led midcap decliners, slumping 17.56 pct to 29.43 after issuing a profit warning, lowering its net profit forecast by 40 mln eur. The share was also downgraded to are duce' at AFS Brokers.

Fellow builder BAM also underperformed, losing 1.61 pct at 18.32 while Nutreco slipped 1.55 pct to 47.70, LogicaCMG was 1.67 pct lighter at 2.35 and Binckbank lost 2.15 pct at 13.20.

Dredging group Boskalis led midcap gainers, rising 0.98 pct to 38.20 while IT company Ordina added 0.71 pct at 14.25 and SNS Reaal gained 0.60 pct at 16.72.

Dave van Ginhoven, dave.vanginhoven@thomson.com

dvg/jfr

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