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Stocks up in London and Paris, down in Frankfurt LONDON (AP) - Insurance stocks led London's Stock Exchange to another record high Wednesday, French stocks rose as well while Frankfurt's key indicator in negative territory.
The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100-share index closed at 6,835.9, up 0.4 percent, for the third straight record high. Volume in the holiday season was a modest 335.7 million shares.
London's best performer was Royal & Sun Alliance, after reports that the company could be a takeover target, with shares up 10.8 percent.
French stocks ended mostly higher with construction groups Lafarge, up 2.4 percent, and Saint Gobain, up 3.6 percent, gaining on expectations that recent storms will push up revenue. The CAC-40 index of most actively traded stocks closed up 0.2 percent to 5,837.75.
However, French reinsurance company Scor closed down 40 cents at EUR44.10. Earlier Wednesday, Scor said the damage caused by the storms in France will hurt its net profit.
Canal Plus, which has jumped 70 percent this month, was down 5.4 percent Wednesday in a wave of profit-taking.
Germany's DAX index was down 0.03 percent to 6,859.58.
Shares of banks and insurers ended mostly lower on continued profit-taking. Financial shares made staggering gains last week on government's proposals for corporate tax reform. That pushed the DAX to all-time highs.
``The overall picture is that we have consolidated at a high level after last week's gains. The situation looks very good. The only thing that will stop banking, finance, and auto stocks carrying the DAX to new records next year is if we see the U.S. markets' bubble burst,'' said Harry Gegenwart, an analyst at Dresdner Bank.
Copyright 1999 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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