With the European oil sector declining again on Tuesday due to sharp drops in crude oil prices, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was 0.2 percent lower to 1,392.86.
In the oil sector, Total was down 1.4 percent to €50.85 and Repsol YPF dropped 1.8 percent to €23.30. Statoil fell 2.8 percent to NKr149, while Norsk Hydro declined 3.1 percent to NKr 139.25 and Neste Oil was 5.1 percent lower to €21.99.
The automobile manufacturing sector saw declines on broker downgrades. Peugeot fell 0.7 percent to €43.72 and went as low as €42.79 earlier in the session after UBS dropped the carmaker’s rating from “neutral” to “reduce” and cut its target share price from €40 to €38. Meanwhile, Renault was 3.5 percent lower to €88.60 on a downgrade from “outperform” to “neutral” by Credit Suisse, which cited a drop in sales in the third quarter.
The MAN/Scania story took another direction amid rumors that Scania and Volkswagen are thinking of jointly bidding for MAN. MAN said it has not received an offer and none of the other players - Scania and its largest shareholders, Volkswagen and Investor - were willing to comment. Investor B shares dropped 1.3 percent to SKr152, but Scania B shares added 0.6 percent to SKr439, Bolkswagen gained 1.5 percent to €67.98 and MAN was 5.7 percent higher to €74.