LONDON, June 22: European equities extended losses on Friday in the wake of weakness shown by Asian markets, dealers said. Investors meanwhile digested new developments surrounding a possible takeover of Borsa Italiana, which owns Milan's stock exchange.

The FTSE 100 index of top shares fell 0.26 per cent to 6,578.80 points, in Paris the CAC 40 slid 0.16 per cent to 6,020.39 points and Frankfurt's DAX 30 lost 0.21 per cent to 7,949.31 in late morning trade.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares managed a rise of 0.06 per cent to 4,491.21 points.

Wall Street posted solid gains on Thursday as a robust report on factory activity helped the market shrug off worries about the financial sector's exposure to losses from mortgage-backed securities.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that NYSE Euronext, the new transatlantic stock exchange, has bid 1.5 billion euros (2.0 billion dollars) for Italian stock market Borsa Italiana, matching an offer from the London Stock Exchange.

The NYSE Euronext has not commented on the report. The LSE said on Wednesday only that it was considering a possible merger with Borsa Italiana.

The board of Borsa Italiana, which operates stock, bond and derivatives markets, was to meet on Friday.

In morning trade, the London Stock Exchange rose 0.74 per cent to 1,363 pence.

Meanwhile British media giant Pearson jumped 1.21 per cent to 834.5 pence after announcing late on Thursday that it would not be teaming up with US conglomerate General Electric in a possible takeover bid for media group Dow Jones, owner of the WSJ.

The announcement came as Dow Jones Co. is trying to fend off a hostile five-billion-dollar takeover offer from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

We will compete in the global marketplace, with the United States, with London, with Europe, Atsushi Saito said.

Every stock exchange wants to remain as an international bourse and the competition is tough.

In New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.42 per cent to close at 13,545.84 points and the tech-dominated Nasdaq added 0.65 per cent to 2,616.96 points on Thursday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index advanced 0.62 per cent to 1,522.19.—AFP