Amsterdam shares close lower tracking Wall St; Hagemeyer falls UPDATE

Amsterdam shares close lower tracking Wall St; Hagemeyer falls UPDATE

	Published : Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:22 By : Agencies Print this Story

(Updates with full report)

AMSTERDAM (Thomson Financial) - Shares closed broadly lower in Amsterdam closely mirroring trade on Wall Street, while Hagemeyer fell ahead of earnings.

The AEX closed 9.62 points or 1.75 pct lower at 541.43, after trading in a range of 538.51-543.40.

Government bonds traded higher while euro stood at 1.4138 usd, versus 1.4250 usd late yesterday.

Hagemeyer led decliners, dropping 4.07 pct to 4.72 eur ahead of third quarter earnings tomorrow which are expected to show a modest rise in sales, but all eyes an ears are on possible news regarding a takeover of the company.

ArcelorMittal dropped 3.78 oct to 52.97 eur after news that minority shareholders of Arcelor were to lodge a request at a Luxembourg court to delay an EGM which is to vote on the merger of Arcelor and Mittal.

Fortis was down 3.37 pct at 21.78 eur after its chairman said to a newspaper that the Belgo-Dutch bancassurer might perform 1 or 2 smaller acquisitions after its buy of ABN Amro.

TNT shed 3.07 pct to 28.12 eur after ABN Amro cut its price target to 34 eur from 36.20 eur.

Vedior dropped 3.04 pct to 16.24 eur after Rabo lowered its price target to 21 eur from 24.50 eur. Randstad shed 0.73 pct 40.61.

DSM shed 2.41 pct to 38.11 eur after Lehman Brothers cut the stock to 'underweight' from 'overweight'.

Heineken ended flat at 46.49 eur amid reports that Carlsberg is to issue 30 bln dkr in shares.

On the other end of the spectrum, ASML rose 0.87 pct to 24.56 eur while TomTom added 1.31 pct to 54.76 eur.

Among midcap shares, USG People shed 4.06 pct to 20.82 eur after Rabobank cut its price target on the stock to 28 eur from 38.

Binckbank dropped 1.15 pct to 13.70 eur amid reports that the online bank is in exclusive talks to buy Rabobank's Alex bank.

Vopak shed 0.37 pct to 40 eur, SNS Reaal edged 0.24 pct lower to 16.40 and Fugro dropped 0.10 pct to 57.10 eur.

By Kaj Leers, kaj.leers@thomson.com

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