March 17, 2006	Friday	Safar 16, 1427

LONDON, March 16: European stock markets fell on Thursday, with London hit by profit-taking in the mining sector, offsetting strong company earnings and renewed takeover activity, dealers said.

The British capital’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares eased 0.17 per cent to 5,954.80 points in afternoon deals. The FTSE has in its sights 6,000 points, a level last reached in March 2001.

In Frankfurt, the DAX 30 dropped 0.31 per cent to 5,879.97 points and in Paris the CAC 40 slid 0.29 per cent to 5,112.98 points.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares decreased 0.42 per cent to 3,826.15 points. The euro stood at 1.2069 dollars.

Wall Street’s key indexes had jumped to fresh multi-year highs on Wednesday as sentiment got a lift from a Federal Reserve report showing the economy growing at a steady pace with few inflationary pressures, dealers said.

In Asia on Thursday, Japanese share prices closed strongly lower as investors banked profits.

In London, heavyweight miner Antofagasta shed 2.28 per cent to 2,018 pence and its rival Kazakhmys slid 2.84 per cent to 958 pence.

Corus topped the FTSE 100 after the Anglo-Dutch steel maker announced plans to sell most of its aluminum operations for 826 million euros ($996 million).

The group, which rejoined the leading index on Wednesday, saw its shares jump 6.23 per cent to 81 pence after posting also a slight rise in full-year profits. At one point the share price hit 81.75 pence, the highest level for more than three years.

Elsewhere, the second-biggest British insurance group Prudential gained 1.98 per cent to 617 pence after announcing a 33-per cent rise in annual pretax operating profit to 1.712 billion pounds (2.481 billion euros, $2.992 billion).

British mobile phone giant Vodafone meanwhile won 1.77 per cent to 129.25 pence on hopes of a bidding war for its Japanese operations, dealers said.

Over in Paris, GDF jumped 2.84 per cent to 30.37 euros after the French state-controlled gas utility group posted a 29.0-per cent rise in annual net profit.

—AFP