European shares ended lower Thursday, as miners Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton lost ground, with indexes showing little reaction to as-expected interest-rate decisions from the Bank of England and the European Central Bank. The U.K. FTSE 100 index closed down 0.4 percent at 6,524.10, the German DAX Xetra 30 index slipped 0.8 percent to 7,415.33 and the French CAC-40 index lost 0.6 percent to 6,012.76, according to AP. The European indexes have been trading around 61/2-year highs recently. «The markets have done quite well in the last few months, and it could be time for a pause,» said Andrew Lynch, a European fund manger at Schroder Investment Management. The Bank of England raised its key rate by a quarter point to 5.5 percent, while the European Central Bank kept interest rates on hold at 3.75 percent. In the U.S., the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday. U.S. stocks started in the red on Thursday. Mining giants Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton both fell more than 3 percent from gains made the previous day after speculation that BHP had launched a bid for Rio. Bid rumors boost real estate company Hammerson, which saw its shares rise 6.5 percent in London after a report in The Business that private-equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts is in the early stages of examining a bid for the group. Friends Provident, meanwhile, surged 8.4 percent amid talk that French insurer Axa may be interested in making a bid. Societe Generale lost 2.1 percent after its first-quarter profit dropped 2 percent. The French bank cited tough comparisons against the year-earlier retail and corporate and investment banking performance and a decline in equity-portfolio income. Societe Generale has often been touted as a bid target of UniCredit. UniCredit shares lost 1.5 percent after it reported a 28 percent drop in first-quarter net income. Meanwhile, Hypo Real Estate shares jumped 6.7 percent in Frankfurt after the financing company said first-quarter net income rose 19 percent and net interest income advanced 10 percent. Aerospace company and Airbus parent EADS fell 1.2 percent after it swung to a loss in the first quarter of 2007. Ongoing restructuring at Airbus pressured profit. However, the results exceeded analyst expectations. And shares in French insurer Axa slipped 2.9 percent as it said first-quarter revenue rose 34 percent. Life and savings new-business volume rose 13 percent on a comparable basis and after integrating Winterthur, the insurer it bought from Credit Suisse. Analysts at Bear Stearns downgraded the company to peer perform from outperform while upgrading competitors Royal & Sun Alliance and Zurich Financial Services to peer perform from underperform. Zurich Financial climbed 4.2 percent, while Royal & Sun shares rose 1.8 percent. InBev, the world's largest brewer, fell 3 percent, backing away from strong recent gains after it said first-quarter profit rose a stronger-than-forecast 69 percent. Reinsurer Converium rose 1.4 percent as it said it'll back a US$2.8 billion (¤2.07 billion) cash-and-shares offer from Scor, shares of which lost 0.9 percent. Carrefour shares rose 2.4 percent in Paris. The company has been the subject of speculation that it will restructure its real estate portfolio. German automaker BMW rose 3.2 percent after Goldman Sachs added the company to its conviction buy.
