The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up by 0.4 percent on Friday, but ended the week down 1.5 percent from where it began on Monday, closing out the session at 1,356.66.
In the telecommunications sector, Telecom Italia was 1.4 percent higher on Friday, to €2.26, ending the week 4.2 percent higher on talk that it will sell its mobile phone operations for around €35 billion. It has also been rumored that it might divest itself of its fixed-line network. The news spurred Dresdner Kleinwort to repeat its “buy” recommendation and target share price of €40. Pirelli, the biggest shareholder in the company controlling Telecom Italia added 4.7 percent on the day and was 11.6 percent higher on the week to, closing at €0.77. Meanwhile, mobile handset maker Nokia fell 6.1 percent to €15.15 this week as rumors that it will issue a profits warning soon continued to circulate.
In the retail sector, Ahold gained 3.3 percent during the week to €7.73, but JP Morgan was not impressed, saying that management had not adequately explained why the company’s US results were so much better in the second quarter than in the first, saying that if second-quarter gains were largely from one-off factors that they should not be used to predict future results. Elswhere, Metro dropped 6 percent to €43.32 after a group of shareholders said that they will sell their 5.4 percent stake in the German retailer.