By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Europe's benchmark stock index trended
lower in choppy action on Monday, as investors weighed surprisingly
weak Chinese export data, deal news from France and more taper talk
from the U.S.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index slipped 0.2% to 332.33. On Friday,
the benchmark ended with its first weekly loss since January after
a week marked by increased tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
Among notable movers in Monday's trade, shares of Iliad SA
rallied 13% after the French telecom firm said over the weekend it
was in exclusive talks to buy Bouygues SA's mobile-network
infrastructure if Bouygues's proposed bid to take over mobile
operator SFR gets through. Iliad also posted a 40% rise in profit
for last year. Shares of Bouygues rose 8.2%.
The moves boosted the French CAC 40 index , which gained 0.4% to
4,385.32. Other major national indexes, however, traded lower, with
Germany's DAX 30 index down 0.3% to 9,318.61 and the U.K.'s FTSE
100 index slightly off at 6,711.02.
The mining sector weighed on the London index after
disappointing Chinese trade data. Numbers out over the weekend
showed exports unexpectedly fell 18.1% in February from a year
earlier, a deterioration after January's 10.6% rise and worse than
the 5% expansion forecast by economists. Chinese exports are seen
as a gauge of global demand, and the weak data for February
signaled a wider slowdown in appetite for goods.
Miners tend to be sensitive to growth data from China, as the
country is a major user of natural resources. Shares of Antofagasta
PLC dropped 1.8%, Glencore Xstrata PLC (GLCNF) gave up 2.1%, BHP
Billiton PLC (BHP) fell 1.3%, and Anglo American PLC shed 2%.
On a more upbeat note in London, Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC picked
up 2.1% after Daimler AG said on Friday it plans to sell its 50%
stake in Rolls-Royce Power Systems Holding to Rolls-Royce.
Also getting market attention, U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of
Philadelphia President Charles Plosser told a panel in Paris that
the U.S. central bank may have to speed up the pace of tapering its
bond purchases to take into account the improving economy. Plosser,
who is a voting member of the Federal Reserve's policy committee,
said that reducing the asset purchases is a step in the right
direction, "but the pace may leave us well behind the curve if the
economy continues to play out according to the FOMC forecasts".
U.S. stock futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street.
More must-reads from MarketWatch:
7 signs we're near a market top, and what to do now
French industrial output falls in January
Here's how the S&P 500 gets to 2,600 next year
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires