(MENAFN- AFP) Europe's major stock markets diverged on Friday as dealers focused on company news and shrugged off a record performance on Wall Street and upbeat German data.
London's FTSE 100 index slid 0.24 percent to stand at 6,665.24 points in midday deals. Frankfurt's DAX 30 lost 0.14 percent to 9,183.64 points and in Paris the CAC 40 added 0.09 percent to 4,257.72 compared with Thursday's close.
Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above the key threshold of 16,000 for the first time on Thursday, extending a rally that has seen the key index add over 22 percent this year.
The Dow rose 0.69 percent to a new closing high of 16,009.99, boosted by buoyant economic data, including a drop in weekly US jobless claims and data from the Markit analysis group that showed rising US manufacturing activity in November.
Investors also digested news that German business confidence rebounded in November to the highest level for more than 18 months.
Germany's Ifo economic institute's business climate index -- a key measure of the mood in the industry and trade sectors of Europe's biggest economy -- rose to 109.3 points from 107.4 points in October.
"A record close for the Dow and strong German Ifo numbers do not seem to have tempted to many fence-sitters in Europe to come back to the table, with European markets broadly flat in a fairly tight range," said analyst Toby Morris at trading firm CMC Markets.
"With the benefit of an extra day to digest Wednesday night's Fed minutes, it appears from the overall market reaction that we are none the wiser regarding a taper and that normal service has resumed for now."
Sentiment was boosted somewhat Thursday after minutes of the Federal Reserve's October meeting revealed it was considering tapering its $85 billion-a-month stimulus "in coming months".
In London on Friday, TUI Travel was the biggest faller amid reports that Norwegian shipping magnate John Fredriksen was cutting his stake in the tour operator.
In response, TUI Travel's share price dived 6.40 percent to 364.2 pence in London.
Pernod Ricard, the world No. 2 maker of wine and distilled spirits, saw its shares jump 1.33 percent to 86.59 euros in Paris on the back of a broker upgrade.
Meanwhile in Frankfurt, German speciality chemicals maker Lanxess topped the fallers board after issuing a cautious outlook in its third-quarter results.
The company's shares sank 2.40 percent to 47.31 euros.
Shares in Novartis jumped 1.5 percent to 73.45 Swiss francs after the pharmaceutical giant announced a share buy-back worth $5 billion.
In foreign exchange activity, the European single currency rose to $1.3525 from $1.3478 late in New York on Thursday.
The euro edged up to 83.51 pence against the British pound, which was firmer at $1.6195. The dollar rose to 101.23 yen from 101.15 yen on Thursday.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold climbed to $1,242.48 an ounce from $1,240 on Thursday.
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