Publications
Partners
London - European equities closed mixed on Monday, with London hit after AstraZeneca rejected Pfizer's final takeover bid, while Frankfurt and Paris rose.
London's FTSE 100 index of top companies gave up 0.16% to close lower at 6 844.55 points.
Frankfurt's Dax 30 however gained 0.31% to 9 659.39 points, while the CAC 40 in Paris ended the day up 0.3% at 4 469.76 points, compared to Friday's closing values.
Growth data
Italian stocks however plunged more than 3.0% at one stage, with banks leading a slump that was mainly due to technical reasons related to dividend pay-outs.
Traders said the market was also hit by last week's weaker-than-expected first-quarter eurozone economic growth data, bond market pressures and uncertainty before European parliamentary elections.
Milan's FTSE Mib index later closed at 20 319 points, down 1.60%.
The euro edged up against the dollar, with dealers saying that traders were on the sidelines in the absence of big economic indicators.
In London, British drugmaker AstraZeneca topped the fallers board.
The group's shares tumbled by up to 15% after the company rejected Pfizer's improved $117bn bid pitched at 55 per share.
Final offer
The announcement appeared to put an end to the long-running saga after Pfizer described its latest bid as its "final" bid on Sunday.
"The biggest story on Monday is without doubt AstraZeneca's decision to reject Pfizer's 'final offer' to buy the company, after it valued the company's shares at 55 each, around 3 short of what the board would consider," said analyst Craig Erlam at Alpari traders.
"Clearly, with Pfizer labelling this their final offer for the company, the deal now appears to be dead in the water and AstraZeneca shares are suffering as a result."
The stock later pulled back slightly to stand at 42.98, down 10.89% from Friday's close.
Erlam added that downbeat Chinese economic data was also hitting London's mining sector, because China is a top consumer of metals.
"Also weighing on the FTSE ... are the miners after more disappointing data from China over the weekend added to concerns that the country cannot achieve its ambitious 7.5-percent growth target," he said.
New funds
On Wall Street, indices were positive, with the Dow Jones index slightly up 0.15% and the Nasdaq gaining 0.76%.
Germany's biggest lender Deutsche Bank meanwhile bucked the trend in Frankfurt, closing down 1.76% at 30.20 euros, after it announced a capital hike of 8.0 billion euros.
The move, which is the second biggest recapitalisation in its history, sees Deutsche Bank turn to the Qatari royal family for a portion of the new funds.
Investor sentiment however was not boosted by a huge takeover deal in the telecommunications sector.
