quarter profit, helped by growth at its Spanish fixed-line unit and its purchase of BellSouth's Latin American assets. Shares in the Spanish-speaking world's biggest phone company ended 0.6 percent firmer. Volumes and activity were low with much of continental Europe celebrating Whit Monday, although both Euronext and Deutsche Boerse were open. Stocks have struggled to break new ground after a powerful rally pushed indexes to 2-1/2 year highs in March and technical analysts at Merrill Lynch believe European indexes will show little clear technical trend in the immediate future. Other notable decliners included British bookmaker William Hill which fell 2.8 percent after it said it will not pay a special dividend following the purchase of the UK betting operations of Stanley Leisure for 504 million pounds. Utilities were weak after broker Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein cut its rating on UK water firms Kelda and Pennon, citing limited upside potential for their shares and the threat that upcoming results could disappoint. Schering's shares fell 3.6 percent after news that experimental cancer drug PTK/ZK has failed to significantly help patients with advanced colon cancer.
