LONDON, Oct 24: European stocks stabilized on Wednesday as dealers sat tight ahead of important US economic data and after a volatile start to the week. In late morning trade, London’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares was up 0.20 per cent at 6,526.80 points, the Paris CAC 40 gained 0.05 per cent to 5,708.09 points, while Frankfurt’s DAX 30 lost 0.17 per cent to 7,829.77.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index of top eurozone shares fell 0.15 per cent to 4,371.98 points.

The European single currency stood at $1.4216 after striking a record high $1.4347 on Monday.

Investors are cautious ahead of US homes sales due out today, still concerned about the impact of the credit crunch and the state of the housing market, said Mark Priest, head of equity sales at Tradindex.

After sliding on Monday, European equity prices rebounded on Tuesday.

Wall Street shares rallied Tuesday, outperforming earnings reports from Apple and other major companies that eased worries about the health of the US economy, dealers said.

In London morning trade, the FTSE 100 was led by Home Retail Group. The owner of upmarket DIY store, Homebase, jumped 3.63 per cent to 401.06 pence after publishing strong first-half results.

The French-Italian chip maker STMicroelectronics meanwhile led from the front in Paris, surging 5.48 per cent to 11.94 euros.

Late Tuesday, the group reported better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter and gave a strong guidance for the final three months of 2007.

Over in Frankfurt, the DAX was dragged down amid losses to financial shares. Commerzbank shed 1.43 percent to 28.93 euros and Allianz lost 1.42 per cent to 152.47 euros.

Commerzbank, whose share price has been hit in recent weeks owing to the US subprime housing crisis, said Wednesday it would sell its French asset management unit Caisse Centrale de Reescompte (CCR) to the Swiss bank UBS for 435 million euros ($620 million).—AFP