The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was 0.4 percent higher on Wednesday to close at 1,320.81. Oil stocks helped the gains.

The semiconductor sector saw declines on the day. ASML dropped 0.8 percent to €14.92 and Infineon was down 2.4 percent. STMicroelectronics fell 3.1 percent to €11.63. While its second-quarter report reached expectations, forecasts for the third quarter were lower than investors wanted to hear. Dresdner Kleinwort reconfirmed its “reduce rating” and target share price of €11.50, saying it is looking for a slowing of demand across the sector.

Telecom Italia was down again, by 1.3 percent to €2.07, as investors worried after a second quarter report that disappointed.

In the automobile manufacturing sector, Peugeot fell 10.1 percent to €41 after dropping as low as €40.07 earlier in the session. It cited rising raw materials prices in issuing a downward-revised second-half outlook. Even so, WestLB reiterated its “buy” recommendation.

Gains in the oil sector included a gain of 1.6 percent to €52.55 for Total, while OMV added 3.7 percent to €48.75.

In the steel sector, Arcelor was up 8.6 percent to €43 on the news that Mittal Steel has accumulated 92 percent of Arcelor’s shares as it nears completion of its takeover.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 2.4 percent this week to 1,313.62, for its best week since January, but it was down by 4.1 percent in the second quarter of 2006. The 300 has added 3 percent since the beginning of the year, but it will need to make up a lot of ground if it is to match its 2005 full-year gain of over 20 percent.

The steel sector saw gains on the week after Arcelor rejected a bid from Severstal, which was seen leaving room for an already-arranged merger with Mittal Steel. Arcelor added 7.8 percent during the week to €37.74. Elsewhere in the sector, ThyseenKrupp gained 3.8 percent to €26.77, while Salzgitter was up 6.9 percent to €66.37. Voestalpine advanced by 7.3 percent to €117.60.

European tiremakers saw declines after Japanese tiremaker Bridgestone of Japan cut its profits estimate for the year. Michelin was down 1.3 percent on the week to €47, while Continental fell 1.6 percent to €79.92.

Danish shipper AP Moller-Maersk declined by 5.2 percent to DKr45,400 on a reduced profits forecast for the year due to sub-par performance in its container shipping unit.

Bayer added 4.5 percent on Friday and 8.4 percent on the week to €35.94 after it said that it will sell part of its diagnostics unit to Siemens, which added 0.8 percent on the day Friday and 0.2 percent during the week to €68.03. Several banks either upgraded or reiterated their positive recommendations for Bayer during the week.

European equities markets were lower on Monday on fears that interest rates in the region could go up more than previously expected. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 dropped 0.3 percent to 1,278.91.

The banking sector was mixed on the day. Credit Agricole said that it would not raise its bid for Greek bank Emporiki even though the Bank of Cyprus was reported to have submitted a higher offer than Agricole’s. Agricole dropped 0.4 percent to €28.30 and Alpha Bank, also thought to be interested in bidding for Emporiki, was down 1.1 percent to €18.80. Meanwhile, Bank of Cyprus added 1.6 percent to €7.34. Emporiki remained even at €27.48.

Elsewhere among banks, Piraeus Bank gained 3.5 percent to €18.66 after it became known that it had increased its stake in Bank of Cyprus from 5.99 percent to 6.4 percent and rumors began to circulate that Piraeus was thinking about bidding for Bank of Cyprus. EFG Eurobank dropped 1.7 percent to €21.10, while National Bank of Greece ended down 1.8 percent to €28.08.

In the steel sector, Arcelor was up 7.9 percent to €37.80 and Mittal Steel dropped 3.7 percent to €24.38 after Arcelor agreed to a new offer from Mittal which was 43 percent higher than its January bid. The newly formed company will have to divest itself of some holdings to satisfy regulatory rules. Salzgitter, which is known to be interested in Arcelor’s European holdings, added 1.9 to €63.25. On the other hand, ThyssenKrupp dropped 2.6 percent to €25.13 on concerns that its deal with Mittal to purchase US company Dofasco could be abandoned due to opposition from Arcelor.

EADS added 3.3 percent to €22.75 after the French government conceded that the aerospace firm’s governance structure should be set by its industrial partners, DaimlerChrysler and Lagardere. The French had previously asked for more influence over the company after EADS said that deliveries of its new A380 super jumbo jet will be delayed.

In Europe on Wednesday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 1 percent to 1,306.63. Despite the gain, the index was down 5.2 percent for the month, the largest monthly decline in over two years. The day’s advance came on gains in the telecommunications and steel sectors.

Banks were mixed on the day. Capitalia and Banca Intesa were both up on renewed rumors of a merger between the two Italian banks. Capitalia added 3.6 percent to €6.4650 and Intesa gained 2.2 percent to €4.5180. National Bank of Greece was also up, adding 6.4 percent to €32.24 on a positive first-quarter earnings report. Belgian bank Dexia, however, was down 1.8 percent to €19.16 when it said that it will purchase 75 percent of Denizbank in Turkey now, and will offer for the remaining 25 percent of the bank when it gets the approval of regulators.

The telecommunications sector was up after having performed badly since the beginning of the year. Telekom Austria added 0.1 percent to €17.41 after Deutsche Bank raised its rating from “hold” to “buy”. OTE (Hellenic Telecom) was up 1.8 percent to €17.30 after a positive earnings report and on positive comments from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, which reiterated its “buy” recommendation. Telefonica was up 2.4 percent to €12.77. Telenor gained 2.7 percent to NKr76.75 on the announcement that it has won a contract to provide automatic meter reading for a Nordic energy company.

Elsewhere in the sector, KPN was up 2.6 percent to €8.95, while Telecom Italia added 3.2 percent to €1.9910 and France Telecom gained 4.2 percent to €17.46.

In the steel sector, Corus added 2.2 percent to €5.70. While it reported that earnings in the first quarter were down from the same period last year, they were still better than had been expected. Arcelor, meanwhile, was up 1.4 percent to €33.30 even though shareholders are still in upheaval over its plans to merge with Russian company Severstal.

With markets in the UK and the US closed for holidays, European equities markets declined on very low volumes of trade on Monday. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 dropped 0.1 percent to 1,322.45.

The decline came even though the steel sector was mostly higher amid rumors of mergers and acquisitions after Arcelor said on Friday that it will merge with Severstal of Russia. Despite investor unhappiness with the move by Arcelor, the Luxembourg-based company added 3.9 percent on the day to €32.80 as Mittal Steel said it would proceed with its attempt to take over Arcelor. Mittal was up 5 percent on the day to €26.25. Only Severstal saw a decline, with its shares down 0.7 percent to Rbs376.90.

Elsewhere in the sector, the possibility of further mergers sent shares in Corus up 2.8 percent to €5.80 and Salzgitter gained 6.3 percent to €68.62.

The oil sector also saw gains on last week’s increase in the price of crude oil. Cespa was up 1.8 percent to €52.10 and Statoil added 2.8 percent to NKr185. Norsk Hydro, with interests in both oil and metals, gained 2.3 percent to NKr176 after it bought back 561,000 shares at NKr170.66 each.

Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche was up 0.9 percent to SFr190.70 after it released data showing that its drug Herceptin, in conjunction with hormone therapy, will stop progression of breast cancer and give longer life to some patients with the disease.

Despite declines during the week, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 closed out the week up by 1.2 percent to 1,322.02 thanks to strong rallies in the last two sessions of the week.

The oil sector saw strong gains during the week. OMV added 10.7 percent to €47.05 after it abandoned a merger with electric utility Verbund. Neste Oil was up 8.7 percent to €25.78, Statoil gained 6.5 percent to NKr180, and Norsk Hydro advanced by 6.2 percent to NKr172.

Banks were mixed. Natexis Banques Populaire gained 9.2 percent to €206 as it progressed toward its merger with Ixis. Raiffeisen International, however, ended the week down by 0.5 percent to €67.40 despite the fact that it gained about 15 percent in the final half of the week.

Stock exchanges were lower on the week. Deutsche Borse lost 6.3 percent to €103.80 as it looked like it would not merge with Euronext after all. Euronext, which expressed a preference for a bid by the New York Stock Exchange, dropped 7.2 percent to €69.25.

The steel sector also saw declines during the week. Arcelor was down by 5.1 percent to €33.05 after its announcement of a takeover of Severstal in Russia was perceived as a way to defeat a hostile bid by Mittal Steel. Mittal dropped 1.6 percent on the week to €25.

In Europe on Monday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 dropped 2.7 percent to 1,271.45 as investors fled emerging markets and looked for safe places to put their money.

Banks were the big losers on the day, as were stock exchanges and the steel and oil sectors.

The price of crude oil was down, taking shares in oil companies along with it. OMV dropped 5.9 percent to €40, while Norway’s Statoil was down 3 percent to NKr164 and Total lost 2.5 percent to €49.85.

In the steel sector, Arcelor dropped 5.6 percent to €32.90 as it said it was looking at a new bid from Mittal Steel and that it has called a shareholder meeting to be held on June 21 for a vote on the bid. Mittal declined by 5.9 percent to €23.91.

Euronext lost 9.5 percent to €67.55 after the New York Stock Exchange offered a bid of $21 billion for the European stock exchange operator. Deutsche Borse, which has also been in talks with Euronext, was down 8.5 percent to €101.30 on the possibility that it might raise its bid.

The banking sector saw substantial declines on the day. Those banks with high exposure to emerging markets in Europe were down the most. Raiffeisen International dropped 9.3 percent to €60.85. Eurobank, in Greece, declined by 6.9 percent to €21.20, while Alpha Bank was down 3.3 percent to €20.02.

Investment banks also saw their shares lose value. UBS fell 4.2 percent to SFr133.40. Credit Suisse lost 3.7 percent to SFr68.15. Deutsche Bank was down 3.1 percent to €88.18.

Credit Agricole was down 3.7 percent on the day to €28.92 when it said that it was assessing Alliance & Leicester ahead of a possible bid. However, CA said that the assessment was in its first stages and did not mean that a bid would be forthcoming.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 saw a slight gain on Friday, adding 0.1 percent to 1,306.56. The gain did not help the week’s results however, which saw the 300 drop by 4.1 percent.

Much of the week’s losses could be blamed on the oil sector, where losses were substantial. Norwegian companies were hard hit, but other companies in the sector were down as well. Norsk Hydro was down 13.8 percent over the week to NKr162, hurt not only by the drop in crude oil prices but also by declines in aluminium, in which it also has interests. Statoil dropped 11.1 percent to NKr169.

Some oil and oil-related companies elsewhere in Europe saw even steeper declines. OMV, based in Austria, lost 15.3 percent to €42.41. Neste Oil declined by 13.9 percent to €23.72. Saipem, the Italian Oil services group, was down 12.3 percent to €17.36.

Stock exchanges were lower as well. Even through Euronext added 5.4 percent on the day Friday, it lost 0.4 percent on the week to close at €74.60. Deutsche Borse was also up on the day but down for the week, as it gained 3.2 percent Friday but lost 10 percent during the week to close at €110.74.

In the steel sector, Arcelor gained 8.9 percent on Friday, overcoming earlier losses to add 0.5 percent for the week, to close at €34.84 after Mittal Steel offered a revised bid that was one-third higher than its earlier offer. Mittal was down 17 percent this week to €25.41.

In Europe on Thursday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 had an up and down day, finally ending 0.4 percent lower at 1,305.30. In Oslo, the OSE index was down 5.7 percent to 372.34.

In the Norwegian oil sector, Statoil dropped 4.7 percent to NKr171 and Norsk Hydro lost 7.5 percent to NKr160.50, both affected by dropping crude oil prices. Statoil was also hurt by reports of cost overruns at a gas project in the Barents Sea. Other Norwegian companies also had trouble on the day, with telecommunications company Telenor dropping 4.3 percent to NKr77.25. The nation’s largest bank, DnB Nor, lost 7.2 percent to NKr77.75.

Things were a little better for oil companies listed on the Eurofirst. Total added 0.4 percent to €51.15, while Cepsa was up by 0.8 percent to €48.12. Still in oil, refiner Saras had the largest initial public offering in Italy in four years. Shares in Saras were initially priced at €6 last week, but were down to €5.29 in their first day of trade.

In the telecommunications sector, Deutsche Telekom gained 0.6 percent to €12.67, while Belgacom was also up 0.6 percent to €25.58. Both were helped out by BT Group’s quarterly report, which showed a rise in core earnings.

Steel company Arcelor was down 2.6 percent to €32 after Mittal Steel initiated a hostile takeover bid. Mittal received regulatory permission for the bid earlier this week in Belgium, France and Luexembourg. Mittal was down 2.4 percent on the day to €27.33.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 declined by 2.1 percent on Friday to 1,363.00, which brought its loss on the week to 2.6 percent. The declines came after closing at its highest level in almost five years on Monday.

The steel sector was mixed. Mittal Steel was down 4.2 percent to €30.73 on Friday despite better than expected profits in the first quarter. It also said that it had gotten anti-trust clearance from the US in its hostile bid for Arcelor. Arcelor, which also reported a positive result for the quarter, lost 2.3 percent to €34.65 on Friday, a drop of 0.9 percent on the week. This came after Arcelor announced a share buyback worth as much as €7.5 billion as part of a defense against the Mittal bid.

On the up side of the sector, ThyssenKrupp added 2 percent Friday and 2.2 percent on the week to €29.09 after going as high as €29.98 earlier in the day on Friday. It had reported significantly better than expected third-quarter results and raised its outlook for the year, prompting West LB to issue an upgrade from “add” to “buy” and to raise the company’s target share price from €27.50 to €36.

The semiconductor sector saw big declines on the week. ASML lost 10 percent to €15.71, while Infineon dropped 8.4 percent to €9.03 and STMicroelectronics fell 6.6 percent to €13.50.

Telecommunications equipment manufacturer Ericsson dropped 7.2 percent during the week to SKr24.50 after it said that margins would not likely improve in the second quarter.