year profit before exceptional items will "comfortably exceed" market forecasts after its business update beat expectations. Investors also cheered news HBOS would buy back up to 750 million pounds ($1.44 billion) of shares next year. Paris's CAC 40 gained 0.2 percent and Frankfurt's DAX was 0.3 percent stronger. The Swiss Market Index added 0.5 percent in Zurich. Autos were strong issues, with Fiat shares up 3.2 percent on speculation about a possible deal with General Motors on an option Fiat holds to sell its auto unit to GM. Fiat said it did not plan to make a statement regarding its talks with General Motors. Among other standout movers, shares in Anglo-Danish security services firm Group 4 Securicor rose 5.6 percent after it said its merger was proceeding ahead of plan, putting it in line to deliver 60 percent of targeted synergies by the middle of 2005. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 0.1 percent at 10,638, while the technology-laced Nasdaq Composite Index added 0.2 percent at 2,153.7.
