Profit-taking and not entirely positive corporate earnings reports took the FTSE Eurofirst 300 0.4 percent lower on Monday to close at 1,338.31.

Tiremakers were mixed, with Continental adding 1.8 percent to €80 but Michelin dropping 1.9 percent to €47.56. Credit Suisse upgraded Continental from “neutral” to “outperform” in anticipation of its quarterly report, which is due on Thursday. At the same time, Credit Suisse reduced its earnings estimate for Michelin in both this year and in 2007.

Results in the banking sector were also varied. Greek banks did well. EFG Eurobank added 1.5 percent to €22.02 as it gets ready to release its second-quarter report on Tuesday. Meanwhile, National Bank of Greece was 1.7 percent higher after bank regulators in Turkey approved its acquisition of Finansbank there. Banks in Iceland didn’t do quite so well due to higher inflation and interest rates and a decline in the krona. Landsbanki held steady at IKr20.60, while Kaupthing dropped 0.7 percent to IKr702.

Still in the banking sector, ABN Amro was 2.3 percent lower to €21.67. Even though it said that net profits were up by 23 percent, analysts at both Bear Stearns and at Citigroup pointed out that much of those profits were due to one-time advantages such as favorable tax rates.

Spanish construction company Sacyr Vallehermoso dropped 2.2 percent to €29.95 on a downgrade from “buy” to “hold” from Citigroup. The broker did, however, raise the builder’s target share price from €30.90 to €32.

In the oil sector, Statoil was 1.9 percent lower to NKr182.50 despite quarterly profits that were higher than expected when it said that it could fall short of full-year production targets for both gas and oil.

In Europe on Tuesday the FTSE Eurofirst 300 hit another four and a half year high to close 0.1 percent higher to 1,373.56.

The gain came even though shares in the oil sector were down as crude oil prices dropped early in the day. Total and Eni dropped 1 percent each, to €210.90 and €23.21 respectively. Statoil declined by 2 percent to NKr171.50.

Stock exchange operators were down as well as bid rumors began to subside. German exchange Deutsche Borse was down 2.4 percent on the day to €114.43, while Euronext dropped by 1.3 percent to €61.55.

The banking sector was mixed on the day. ABN Amro was up on reports that BBVA was thinking of bidding for the Dutch bank, gaining 2.7 percent to €25.68 after going as high as €25.78 earlier in the day. BBVA, however, dropped 0.8 percent to €17.

Banco Santander Central Hispano declined by 0.1 percent to €12.07 on talk that it might be looking for more foreign purchases after recently buying a UK mortgage lender. Smaller Spanish banks were up, however, with Banco Popular gaining 4.3 percent to €12.52 and Bankinter adding 0.5 percent to €57.10.

Icelandic banks were down on the day after Danske Bank issued a prediction that the economy there is poised to enter a recession. Kaupthing dropped 3.9 percent to IKr878, while Landsbanki declined by 4.3 percent to IKr26.50 and Glitnir fell 4.2 percent to IKr18.20.