In Europe on Tuesday, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 dropped 0.6 percent to 1,366.20. Among the influences sending stocks lower was new data showing German investor sentiment lower, a slow start in the New York markets, and a state of emergency that was declared in Thailand due to an attempted coup there.

The telecommunications sector was in the news during the session. Telecom Italia dropped 1.4 percent to €2.17 on the news that its unions have called a strike for October 3 to protest TI’s restructuring. Also hurting the Italian telecom’s share price was a broker downgrade from Morgan Stanley, which lowered TI’s rating from “equal weight” to “underweight” and dropped its target share price from €2.50 to €2.10.

Elsewhere, the telecoms were more successful. Deutsche Telekom overcame the news of the German confidence decline to add 0.2 percent to €11.71. Morgan Stanley issued an upgrade from “equal weight” to “overweight” and set its target share price at €13.10. Sonaecom gained 4.9 percent to €5.19 as investors hoped that the Portuguese government will allow it’s hostile bid for Portugal Telecom, which was 0.4 percent higher to €9.79, to go forward.

The semiconductors sector was lower on the session even though both Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank issued positive comments. STMicroelectronics dropped 0.5 percent to €13.11, while Infineon declined by 1.4 percent to €9.61.

While the FTSE Eurofirst 300 gained 0.2 percent on Friday to close at 1,313.20, it dropped 0.7 percent on the week thanks at least in part of a sell-off on Tuesday that was prompted by worries about the effects of an expected rise in Eurozone interest rates. Despite the down week for the equities markets as a whole, the telecommunications sector and stock exchange operators had positive a positive week.

The announcement on Friday by the New York Stock Exchange that it has agreed to purchase Euronext for €7.78 billion put an apparent end to the effort by Deutsche Borse to merge with the pan-European exchange. The announcement sent shares in Deutsche Borse down by 1.2 percent on the day, but the German exchange still ended the week up by 1.4 percent at €105.30. Euronext added 3.3 percent on the day and 2.7 percent for the full week, closing on Friday at €71.15.

In the telecommunications sector, Telefonica added 1.3 percent when Nomura reconfirmed its “buy” rating on the company and raised its fair value estimate to €15.30 from €14.50. Telecom Italia was up 2.6 percent on the week to €2.2270. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, disagreed with Nomura, recommending that its clients drop Telefonica in favor of Telecom Italia.

Elsewhere in the sector, France Telecom advanced by 3.5 percent during the week to €17.69, while Portugal Telecom was up 3.6 percent on the day and on the week to trade at €9.62 on rumors of possible bids. Telnor was up 6.7 percent on the week to NKr79.00.

The European equities markets were down Wednesday, as the FTSE Eurofirst 300 dropped 0.2 percent to 1,315.77. This was despite more rumors of mergers as oil and mining stocks fell with Tuesday’s declines in commodities prices.

Salzgitter was down 4.6 percent to €54.49 as Australia’s biggest steel maker, BlueScope Steel, issued a profits warning. Copper producer Norddeutsche Affinerie lost 5.5 percent on the day to €24.42. Not everyone in the metals industry was down on the day, however, as speciality steel and tool maker Sandvik gained 4.8 percent to SKr407 after its fourth-quarter report showed an almost 35 percent gain in profits on strong demand.

In the oil sector, OMV was down 2.9 percent to €55.58, while Total dropped 2.4 percent to €215.90. The European oil sector as a whole fell 2.2 percent on the day.

The air transportation sector fared better, with Alitalia up 5.4 percent to €1.154. Even though Morgan Stanley said that the Italian air carrier will have to struggle to restructure, it nonetheless upgraded the airline to “overweight” and set a price target of €1.60. Meanwhile, Air France-KLM gained 3.1 percent. Morgan Stanley also upgraded that airline to “overweight”, saying that the market has underestimated revenue and cost synergy benefits when the French airline merged with KLM.

Other merger talk came in the telecommunications sector. Speculation over Portuguese conglomerate Sonae’s hostile bid for Portugal Telecom and takeover bid for PT Multimedia, 58 percent owned by PT, sent Sonae up 0.8 percent to €1.23. PT gained 0.1 percent to €9.70, and PT Multimedia gained 0.3 percent to €9.93. If these deals are completed, analysts expect that France Telecom, which owns 23.7 percent to Sonaecom, Sonae’s telecommunications arm, will be affected. France Telecom rose 1.3 percent on the day to €18.35.