The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index sank 0.5% to 244.89, erasing a gain of as much as 1.4% in afternoon trading as US equities slid. Europe's gauge has soared 55% since March 9, pushing valuations on the index to more than 50 times reported earnings, as the German and French economies unexpectedly grew in the second quarter and the Federal Reserve held interest rates near zero to unlock credit markets.

National benchmark indexes fell in 13 of the 18 western European markets. Germany's DAX lost 0.4%, while France's CAC 40 slipped 0.3%.

The Stoxx 600 advanced in morning trading as raw-material producers climbed with metals. BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's largest mining company, gained 2% to 1,832 pence and Rio Tinto, the third biggest, added 2.2% to 3,000.5 pence. Copper, nickel and tin rose on the London Metal Exchange.

German stocks dropped, wiping out their weekly gain, as declines in Infineon Technologies AG and Deutsche Telekom AG helped offset a report that showed business confidence climbed to a 13-month high in October.

Infineon, Europe's second-largest maker of semiconductors, and Deutsche Telekom AG, the region's biggest phone company, retreated more than 1%. Deutsche Lufthansa AG led rising shares, climbing 1.7%.

The benchmark DAX Index slipped 0.4% to 5,740.25, for a weekly decline of 0.1%. A seven-month rally has left the measure valued at more than 46 times its companies' reported earnings, near the highest level since 2003. The broader HDAX Index decreased 0.3% Friday.

The Ifo institute said its business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, climbed to 91.9, the highest reading since September 2008. Economists expected a gain to 92.

Infineon dropped 2.4% to 3.48 Euros, while Deutsche Telekom fell 1.2% to 9.57 Euros. Munich Re, the world's biggest reinsurer, slid 1.3% to 110.54 Euros.

Stocks erased earlier gains even after a report showed sales of existing US homes climbed in September to the highest level in more than two years. UK gross domestic product unexpectedly dropped in the third quarter as enduring slumps in services, manufacturing and construction kept the economy mired in its longest recession on record.

Lufthansa, Europe's second-largest airline, climbed 1.7% to 11.60 Euros as the company said it would exercise its right to buy out remaining shares in Austrian Airlines AG at an 88% discount.

MAN SE, the region's third-biggest truckmaker, rose 1.1% to 58.85 Euros, ending three days of declines. UniCredit Markets & Investment Banking lifted its share-price forecast 18% to 60 Euros. Jenoptik AG added 1.1% to 3.84 Euros, the first gain this week. The German maker of optical equipment was rated "buy" in resumed coverage at WestLB AG, which said the company "is tackling the cost issue and high financial gearing with financial and operating restructuring." The brokerage has a price estimate of 5.50 Euros on the shares.

France's CAC 40 Index slipped 12.61, or 0.3%, to 3,808.24 in Paris, for a 0.5% loss this week. The SBF 120 Index also slipped 0.3% Friday.

Alcatel-Lucent added 5 cents, or 1.8%, to 3.06 Euros after three days of losses. The world's largest supplier of fixed-line phone networks was raised to "buy" from "neutral" at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which said "we expect major additional cost cutting combined with a recovery in volumes to drive margins back to mid/high single digits."

BNP Paribas climbed 1.15 Euros, or 2.1%, to 56.25, gaining for a third day this week. France's largest bank said investor demand for its 4.3 billion-Euro ($6.46 billion) share sale was 2.5 times more than the number of shares on offer. The settlement and listing of the new shares will happen on Oct. 26.

Separately, the company was raised to "buy" from "neutral" at UBS AG, which cited "ongoing robust cashflow generation."

Havas sank 20 cents, or 7%, to 2.79 Euros, dropping for a third day. The owner of the Euro RSCG Worldwide advertising agency said nine-month revenue fell 8.2% to 1.03 billion Euros.

PSA Peugeot Citroen added 33 cents, or 1.4%, to 23.90 Euros, gaining for a second day. Europe's second- largest carmaker raised its European auto-market forecast for 2009 and said it will update its own full-year profit guidance next month.

Renault, France's second-biggest carmaker, climbed 57 cents, or 1.7%, to 35.05 Euros after two days of losses.

Cie. de Saint-Gobain rallied 54 cents, or 1.5%, to 36.41, for a second gain this week. Europe's biggest supplier of building materials confirmed its goals for operating income and recurring net income to be higher in the second half than in the first, helped by an accelerating expense-reduction program and lower costs for raw materials. The company said third-quarter sales fell 14%.

The Bel 20 in Brussels closed the week at 2,547.34, down 0.56% on the day.

Mobistar, Belgium's second-biggest mobile-phone company, fell the most in eight months after reporting earnings that missed analysts' estimates and losing subscribers for the first time. Repsol YPF SA, Spain's largest oil company, slipped 1.3% as oil dropped for a second day.

Mobistar slid 4.7% to 46.53 Euros. Third-quarter earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization declined 5.3% to 142.4 million Euros ($214 million), missing the 146.1 million-Euro average of 11 estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Mobistar lost 53,400 customers in the three months through September and reported revenue declined following regulatory cuts in roaming charges as of July 1.

A gauge of telecommunications shares including Mobistar lost 1.7% for the biggest drop among 19 industry groups in the Stoxx 600.

Belgian display and visual systems maker Barco made a surprise operating loss in the third quarter due to inventory writedowns and declined to repeat its full-year outlook, sending its shares down sharply on Wednesday.

Barco, whose displays are used as scoreboards for sports stadiums, medical imaging systems and at pop concerts, reported a loss before interest and tax (EBIT) of 3.3 million Euros ($4.94 million) for the three months to end-September.

Analysts had been expecting the company to break even, pulling back from an operating loss a year ago.

Chief Executive Eric Van Zele told a news conference the fourth quarter should be "solid", with growth in digital cinema. He said the company is in line to meet a projector shipment target of 100 million Euros.

However, conditions were weak for LED billboards and large display panels, a core segment. Van Zele could not say for how much longer Barco would have write down billboard inventory.

"I don't think it would get better very soon," Van Zele said of the billboard market, in which it competes with firms such as Element Labs. "We have lost market segments, but in reality, there is no demand for it."

The group said it would continue to implement measures to restore profitability and establish healthy levels of working capital, even if this pushed the operating result below its previous forecast of breakeven for the full year.

Barco's shares fell as much 9.7% to a three-month low of 25.91 Euros after the news on Wednesday, making it the weakest on Euronext Brussels.

Belgium's UCB said its revenue over nine months fell due to generic competition for epilepsy medication Keppra in the US, which offset European growth for Keppra, growth of allergy rhinitis drug Xyzal in the US and allergy drug Zyrtec in Japan.

UCB said prescription data for Cimzia were promising, as it had a 20% share for treating Crohn's disease and 2.9% for rheumatoid arthritis.

It still sees a profit above 2008's 550 million Euros on sales between 3.1 billion and 3.3 billion Euros.

Shares in Belgian semiconductor specialist Melexis rose 2.9% after the company posted better-than-expected third quarter results, raised its 2009 sales forecast and and says it expects 25% growth in 2010.

Melexis shares outperformed the Euronext Belgian midcap index.

Amsterdam's AEX finished Friday's trading session at 320.14, a drop of 0.17%.

Dutch insurance company Delta Lloyd NV, a unit of UK insurer Aviva, may issue new shares to finance acquisitions if the buys will boost earnings per share, Chief Executive Niek Hoek said Monday.

An issue of 10% of outstanding shares is possible without shareholder approval, Hoek told reporters at a press conference.

Earlier Monday, Aviva said it plans to raise a gross sum of about Eur1.2 billion by floating 42% of Delta Lloyd.

Delta Lloyd's Niek Hoek said the flotation isn't driven by the consolidation in the Dutch insurance sector. "The base case is that Delta Lloyd is an attractive option for investors in its current state", he said.

Aviva will offer institutional and retail investors 42% of Delta Lloyd, or around 63.5 million ordinary shares at Eur15.50-Eur19 each, with an over-allotment option of up to 6.35 million more.

Delta Lloyd shares are expected to start trading in Amsterdam on the Euronext exchange Nov. 3.

Dutch telecom company Royal KPN  said Tuessday that it has extended its cash tender offer to acquire all the outstanding shares of common stock of US-based iBasis that are not held by KPN.

A Dutch court on Wednesday ruled that the Finance Ministry did not mislead investors on the nationalisation of Belgian-Dutch financial group Fortis in 16 cases brought by shareholders.

In late September 2008, the governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg announced the partial nationalisation of Fortis operations in their respective countries.

Five days later, the plan fell apart and the Dutch government nationalised all of Fortis's local operations for 16.8 billion Euros.

The plaintiffs had claimed the late-September communications about the partial nationalisation were misleading in that they encouraged investors to buy shares when the government allegedly knew the partial takeover would not succeed.

However, the court ruled that the government intended to save Fortis with the partial nationalisation and believed that it could, and therefore did not mislead investors.

It also said that the state was not obligated to immediately inform investors once it knew that partial nationalisation would not be enough, given the potential consequences for the rest of the banking system if it did tell them.

The government is still embroiled in a much larger case in Amsterdam over the collapse of Fortis.

In Zurich, the SMI rounded out the week on 6,378.06, a decline of 0.43% for the session.

Credit Suisse Group Thursday matched buoyant third-quarter results from its healthiest US rivals as earnings from its investment banking business helped push it to a larger-than-expected net profit, though analysts cautioned that blowout profits may be coming to an end.

The Zurich-based bank said net profit for the three months was 2.4 billion Swiss francs ($2.38 billion) compared with a loss of CHF1.3 billion in the year-earlier period. Analysts had forecast net profit of CHF1.72 billion.

As an outlook, Credit Suisse said it is confident of its position among competitors and is prepared for several possible scenarios.

"If markets remain constructive, we expect to be able to maintain our momentum. Even if markets become more difficult, we believe that Credit Suisse is positioned to perform well," Chief Executive Brady Dougan said in a statement.

The investment bank swung to a CHF1.75 billion pretax profit - more than twice the private bank's figure. A year earlier, the investment bank posted a pretax loss CHF3.21 billion.

In particular, global interest-rate products, foreign-exchange trading, prime brokerage, cash equities leveraged buyout loans and trading in US residential mortgage securities and derivatives made a strong showing in the recent quarter.

However, Credit Suisse shares fell, partly on concerns that the investment bank cannot sustain its profitability, as once-ailing competitors such as Royal Bank of Scotland Group, Citigroup and UBS once again gear up their securities operations.

Evidence of a lack of sustainable investment-bank profits might already be surfacing. The unit's revenue fell 16% from the second quarter, and Bernstein Research said that profits only held up because loan-loss provisions were extremely low and because Credit Suisse skimped on bonus payouts. The brokerage rates Credit Suisse at underperform with a CHF45 target price.

Swiss drugmaker Novartis said sales would grow faster than expected this year, even without a shot in the arm of up to $700 million from its H1N1 swine flu pandemic vaccine.

Third-quarter net profit at Novartis, which joined other major drugmakers in reporting strong trading conditions, nudged up 1% to $2.1 billion, in line with forecasts, the firm said on Thursday.

Novartis, which faces loss of exclusivity on its top-selling blood pressure drug Diovan in 2012, was hit by one-off charges of $189 million from rival Roche's acquisition of Genentech and discontinuing of a drug by Alcon.

It has a 33% stake in Roche and holds 25% of eye care company Alcon. It made no comment on an agreement with Nestle to acquire a majority of Alcon.

Nestlé SA said Thursday the strong Swiss franc triggered a 2.2% drop in sales for the first nine months of the year, but added that volumes grew in the third quarter and that it is accelerating its 25 billion franc ($24.8 billion) share-buyback program.

Sales at the world's largest food and beverages company fell to 79.55 billion Swiss francs from 81.36 billion francs a year earlier. The rise in value of the franc against the Dollar, the Euro, and the Pound -- currencies in which Nestlé generates a large chunk of its sales -- offset improved organic growth, a closely followed performance measure comprising changes in selling prices and volumes. Organic growth accelerated to 3.6% for the first nine months, compared with 3.5% for the first half and 3.8% in the first quarter.

Nestlé said it sees even higher organic growth for the full year but didn't give a specific growth target. It also still expects to improve margins for operating profit when stripping out currency fluctuations. In August, the company dropped a previous forecast for organic growth "at least approaching 5%" for 2009, indicating it was comfortable with the market's 4% organic-growth estimate.

In addition, Nestlé said it has decided to spend 7 billion francs to buy back shares this year, instead of the 4 billion francs it had originally planned. This will allow it to complete its 25 billion franc buyback program earlier than planned.

The planned sale of its remaining 52% stake in US-based eye healthcare company Alcon to Novartis AG will trigger a gain of up to $28 billion next year, Nestlé said, driving speculation that it would soon announce a new buyback program, a special dividend, or an acquisition.

Nestlé said it hasn't decided what to do with the Alcon proceeds. The company can sell its Alcon shares at the market price plus a premium of 20.5% from Jan. 1, and Novartis has a right to buy Alcon at $181 a share.

Nestlé had been touted as a possible rival bidder for UK confectioner Cadbury PLC, which is being pursued by Kraft Foods Inc. It didn't comment on that possibility, but management has previously said it was focused on organic growth and smaller acquisitions.

The company didn't break out third-quarter results nor did it release net profit.

Vienna's ATX Exchange closed out a volatile week Friday at 2,681.19, up 0.41%.

Austrian developer Immofinanz is likely to sell shares in an upcoming rights issue at a discount, breaking with the habit of pricing share sales close to market prices, the company's chief executive said on Thursday.

Eduard Zehetner, a turnaround specialist who helped rescue Immofinanz from the brink of insolvency this year, also said he believed the deal could be placed rather quickly if markets stayed in the shape they were in now.

Immofinanz earlier this month got shareholder approval to sell 229.5 million new shares in a rights issue, which would be worth 659 million Euros ($987 million) at Thursday's closing price of 2.87 Euros, down 8% on the day.

"It is more likely that the capital increase will be discounted than at the market level," Zehetner told retail investors at a trade fair in Vienna. "If the market sentiment doesn't change, the capital increase will be sold quickly."

Immofinanz and its emerging European arm Immoeast raised billions of Euros during the 2004-2008 boom for Austrian property shares - pricing the deals very close to, and sometimes above the level at which they were traded at the time.

But their fortunes changed when the real estate bubble burst in eastern Europe, leveraged plays got out of fashion, and corporate governance issues emerged at the two companies.

Zehetner has said in the past that by late 2008, Immofinanz was facing a life-threatening liquidity squeeze.

Austrian oil and gas group OMV raised hopes for a better third-quarter result on Tuesday when it said refinery margins declined less sharply than feared, oil hedges turned positive and affiliates performed.

Shares in the group rose as much as 3.5% to 30.98 Euros, the highest level in more than four months, as some analysts said they may have to raise 2009 estimates. The DJ Stoxx Oil and Gas index declined 0.3%.

Low distillate spreads and the higher oil price still hit refining margins in the quarter to September, when OMV's reference refining margin declined to $1.30 per barrel, down by another 20% on the quarter.

Higher crude prices in the quarter increased the cost of OMV's own consumption in refineries, especially at Romanian arm Petrom SNPP.BX, OMV said in its quarterly trading update.

However, some analysts said they had expected an even sharper decline based on even lower margin indications from other refiners, including France's Total.

Stockholm's OMX ended the Friday session on 932.29, a gain of 0.52% for the day.

Volvo AB soared 4.9% to 69.75 kronor. The world's second-largest truckmaker had a net loss of 2.92 billion kronor ($430 million), less than the loss of 3.4 billion kronor average estimated by nine analysts.

Ericsson, the world's largest maker of wireless phone networks, posted a steeper-than- expected 71% drop in third-quarter profit, as clients slashed spending and Chinese competition drove down prices.

The company had its biggest drop in three months in Stockholm trading after saying net income fell to 810 million kronor ($118 million) from 2.84 billion kronor, a year earlier, and sales slid 5.6% to 46.4 billion. Analysts expected profit of 1.97 billion kronor on sales of 50.4 billion kronor.

Chief Executive Officer Carl-Henric Svanberg said the market is "tougher" and credit in some emerging economies is still tight. Ericsson is fighting a slide in sales of telecommunications equipment as carriers such as TeliaSonera AB pare investments and competitors such as China's Huawei Technologies Co. are able to sell network gear at lower prices.

Network-equipment suppliers have suffered as the economic slump cut demand at phone operators, who capped or postponed spending. Nokia Oyj last week said it wrote down the value of its joint venture Nokia Siemens Networks, which competes with Ericsson, by almost a billion Euros, citing a deteriorated outlook for the business.

Ericsson's 32% market share in the second quarter was unchanged from a year earlier. Nokia Siemens remained the second-largest vendor with a 20% share, while third-place Huawei gained to 17%.

Ericsson took a 2.7 billion-kronor restructuring charge in the quarter for a cost-cutting program aimed at saving 10 billion kronor from the second half of 2010. Ericsson said it is running ahead of schedule on that plan.

Equipment sales fell 8%, while services sales gained 9%, the company said.

Tele2 Wednesday said it expects to this year launch operations in more regions than previously expected in its key growth market Russia, as it posted rising third-quarter net profit after the previous year's result was hit by charges.

The Swedish telecom operator said it now expects to launch operations in 14 out of 20 new license regions in Russia in 2009, compared with previous expectations for 12 regions.

Tele2, which first started operations in Russia in 2003, has expanded its presence in the country over the past few years as it regards it a major driver of future growth.

Russia has around 80 license regions and Tele2 is Friday covering roughly half of these, so there is good scope for further expansion, Chief Executive Harri Koponen told Dow Jones Newswires on Wednesday.

Tele2 aims to spread its presence into regions with high population density and concentration of industries, Koponen said, but added that the future roll-out rate is hard to predict because his company will have to win licenses or make acquisitions in order to expand.

The operator, which has around 25 million customers in markets including Sweden, Russia and the Baltics, on its capital markets day in September said it expected its customer base in Russia to reach 18 million-19 million by the end of 2011 as it enters new regions.

The company said Wednesday it had a total customer intake of 1.1 million customers in Russia during the third quarter.

Swedish manufacturing company Atlas Copco Thursday reported a 29% fall in third quarter net profit due to a drop in demand worldwide for most of its products but said it expects demand in some emerging markets to pick up.

"Overall demand is expected to stay around the current level. The demand in some emerging markets, including China and India, is expected to gradually improve," Ronnie Leten, President and Chief Executive said in a statement.

The company's outlook echoed comments of competitors Alfa Laval, and SKF earlier this week, that they expect demand to remain stable, but at the current low levels.

Atlas Copco's products range from compressed air and gas equipment to construction and mining equipment and industrial tools and assembly systems. It operates in more than 160 markets and has its own sales operations in about 80 countries.

Net profit fell to 1.72 billion Swedish kronor in the three months to end-September from SEK2.42 billion in the same period a year earlier. This was clearly higher then a poll among 10 analysts, which had forecast a net profit of SEK1.3 billion.

In Copenhagen the OMX finished the day at 338.97, a gain of 0.98% and Europe's best bourse of the day.

Danish biopharma company NEuroSearch is seeking up to 443 million Danish crowns ($89 million) through a share issue to boost its transformation into a pharmaceuticals group, the company said on Monday.

The announcement knocked 14.5% off the value of NEuroSearch stock, which traded down 21.50 crowns at 127.0 at 1022 GMT against a 0.6% gain in the DJ Stoxx European healthcare sector index .SXDP.

NEuroSearch said it would offer existing shareholders up to 7.39 million new shares at 60 crowns per share, which it said would raise approximately 443 million crowns if the offering was fully subscribed.

Shareholders will be allocated three pre-emptive rights for each share held and seven rights will entitle owners to subscribe for one new share, NEuroSearch said.

The aim of the issue is to secure funding for research and development activities, general corporate purposes and to strengthen the company's negotiating position in relation to licence partners, NEuroSearch said.

Chief Executive Flemming Pedersen told Reuters the transaction was a positive move not a rescue measure and added that the issue would provide cash to run the business up to the middle of 2012 -- a year longer than without it.

He said in the statement that NEuroSearch aimed to transform itself from a research and development firm into a fully integrated pharmaceuticals company specialised on central nervous system disorders.

Danske Equities maintained its "accumulate" stance on Danish luxury furniture retailer BoConcept Holding A/S and said it raised the share price target, after BoConcept's recently completed share offering which raised DKK37m.

The improved balance sheet reduces the risk in the share, according to the brokerage, which expects the number of BoConcept stores and same-store sales to start rising gradually from 2010/2011.

Norway's OBX Exchange ended the week on 310.13, a dip of 0.58% for Friday's session.

Wednesday, the Statistics Norway announced that the international reserves stood at NOK 282.8 billion in September, up from NOK 270.9 billion in the previous month. A year ago, the official reserve assets were NOK 261.7 billion.

But, other foreign currency assets amounted to NOK 5.85 billion in September, down from NOK 6.55 billion in August.

Approximately one% of all the world's shares are now on Norwegian hands. The Norwegian Pension Fund is Europe's largest fund. Its size increases year by year, fueled by revenue from Norway's oil and gas industry.

Currently, the fund is worth approximately 2600 billion NOK - almost 500 billion USD. More than 8000 companies around the world are partly owned by the Norwegian people.

Some of these companies do not adhere to the fund's strict ethical guidelines apparently and this week the fund has been under the microscope.

In Guatemala, the Canadian company Goldcorp is accused of poisoning the Maya people who live in the vicinity of a large gold mine. Approximately one% of the revenue from the mine is left in Guatemala - the rest goes to Goldcorp and its owners. The Norwegian Pension Fund owns shares worth 611 million NOK (110 million USD) in Goldcorp.

In Western Sahara, phosphate is exported from an area defined by the UN as a «non-self-governing territory». Norway's government has discouraged Norwegian companies from investing in Western Sahara, yet the Pension Fund ownes shares in seven international companies that do.

In Canada, the Pension Fund invests heavily in companies that extract oil from oil sand. This process is very damaging for the environment, and the Norwegian government has encouraged Norwegian companies to stay away from this kind of oil production.

On the West Bank, the Norwegian Pension Fund has invested in 31 companies that are directly or indirectly involved in illegal settlements, according to whoprofits.org. The shares of another company, Elbit Systems, were sold because the company is involved in building the separation barrier on the West Bank. If building the barrier is in itself illegal, it follows that so are the settlements, roads and factories serving the occupation., writes Amira Hass in an article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz

Norway's government discourages investments in Burma (Myanmar), yet the Norwegian Pension Fund invests several billion Dollars in the oil companies Total and Chevron, which are involved in developing the gas field Yadana off the country's Western coast.

Since when has Norway had such close scrutiny of its fund and more importantly, why now I ask myself? Oil concerns?

Norway's largest bank, DnB NOR, beat forecasts for third quarter profits thanks to a strong home market and said business prospects were improving, though the outlook for the Baltics and its shipping sector clients remained hazy.

DnB NOR shares rose as much as 3% in a falling market before shedding their gains. The stock has enjoyed a months-long rally driven in part by the relative strength of Norway's oil-fuelled economy.

The results follow above-consensus earnings at Swedish peer SEB on Wednesday, reinforcing views that the rate of bad loan growth in the crisis-hit Baltics is slowing, benefiting a swathe of Nordic lenders with exposure to the region.

DnB NOR's pretax profit fell to 2.76 billion crowns ($493.4 million) in July through September from 3.65 billion a year ago, it said on Thursday, beating all 13 predictions in a Reuters poll of analysts whose average forecast was 1.88 billion.

DnB NOR Chief Executive Rune Bjerke told reporters he hoped the lender's losses in the Baltics had peaked, though the outlook there remained one of "great uncertainty".

"There is a positive underlying trend, especially in retail banking and (DnB NOR's insurance unit) Vital," Bjerke said.

Last month DnB NOR announced a 14 billion crown rights issue, backed by its leading shareholders including the Norwegian government, to replenish funds eroded by exposure to recession-hit economies, including the Baltics.

The merger of Norwegian oil minnow Det norske oljeselskap with sector player Aker Exploration was approved on Monday by the extraordinary general meetings (EGMs) in both companies.

The partners announced merger plans in the summer of 2009.

The new entity will retain the name Det norske oljeselskap ASA and Norwegian industrial group Aker ASA will be the main owner with around 40% of the shares.  At the EGM in Det norske, a total 41.441 million shares voted in favour of the transaction, corresponding to 94.34% of the votes. A total 69.4% of the outstanding shares were represented at the EGM.

Atea ASA, the largest supplier of IT infrastructure products and services in the Nordic and Baltic region, Friday announced third quarter 2009 results with a revenue of MNOK 2,890.2 and EBITDA of MNOK 107.6 up 10% from last year and an EBITDA margin of 3.7%.

In the first three quarters of 2009 Atea generated revenue of MNOK 10,179.5 and a revenue growth of 1.2%. EBITDA for the first three quarters ended at MNOK 315.8 and cash flow from operations increased to MNOK 192.9 from MNOK 190.1 last year.

The OMX in Helsinki closed off Friday at 6,167.70, down 0.33% for the day.

Finnish steelmaker Rautaruukki reported a wider than expected third-quarter loss due to weak demand in the downturn and said the current quarter could also end in the red, sending its shares lower on Thursday.

"The company estimates there will be a marked improvement in the result before taxes for the fourth quarter, compared to the third quarter, but that the result might remain slightly negative," Rautaruukki said.

The company tumbled to a July-September operating loss of 54 million Euros ($81 million) from a 197 million profit a year ago. A 25 million Euros loss was forecast in a Reuters poll.

Net sales more the halved to 485 million Euros, also missing the poll forecast.

Finnish stainless steel maker Outokumpu said it saw no signs of an upturn in demand for the metal after third quarter sales and profits slumped, but it stuck to its goal of breaking even at year-end.

"Stainless steel markets have not seen any major improvement. Underlying demand continues to be weak and the purchasing behaviour of steel distributors is very much driven by short-term developments in the nickel price," Outokumpu Chief Executive Juha Rantanen said in a statement.

Outokumpu slumped to a July-September loss of 65 million Euros ($97.1 million), flat year-on-year but missing the mean estimate of a loss of 48 million in a Reuters poll. Sales tumbled 54% year-on-year to 587 million Euros, missing all estimates in the poll where the average estimate was for 702 million.

But it stuck to its previous outlook of a break-even towards the end of the year on the back of improved prices, higher delivery volumes and cost controls, and added it expected its underlying result to improve in the fourth quarter from the third.

Top European paper and board maker Stora Enso reported better than forecast underlying third-quarter earnings on Thursday thanks to cost cutting, but said its market outlook remained gloomy.

"Looking forward, the markets remain generally weak and the structural overcapacity in Europe continues to put pressure on prices in several product ranges," chief executive Jouko Karvinen said in a statement.

"That, combined with unclear macroeconomic and raw material cost development trends, makes visibility poor and quarter-by-quarter predictions difficult," he said.

Stora's underlying July-September operating profit rose to 131.5 million Euros ($196 million) in the third quarter from 125.5 million a year earlier, beating all forecasts in a Reuters poll of 16 analysts.

Including a steep hit of 655 million Euros in the quarter, mostly from one-time charges for planned mill closures and lay-offs in Finland, Stora notched a loss of 519.7 million Euros for the three months.

Finnish cargo handling equipment maker Cargotec posted a smaller-than-expected drop in underlying third-quarter earnings thanks to cost cuts, and stuck to its outlook for a tough 2009.

The group repeated that 2009 sales are expected to fall by some 25% year-on-year and said on Thursday it would make an operating loss after booking restructuring costs of some 70 million Euros ($104.5 million) for the year.

Cargotec's underlying July-September operating profit slumped 77% from a year ago to 11.6 million Euros, ahead of expectations of 10 million in a Reuters poll.

Sales fell 34% to 559 million, below all forecasts in the poll.

Cargotec has cut hundreds of jobs in 2009 as it grapples with weak demand and said on Thursday it would slash an additional 300 jobs in the Finnish city of Tampere.

Madrid's IBEX rounded out the week by ending at 11,739.80, off 0.75% for the day.

Shares in Spain's Criteria and Agbar have been suspended, stock market regulator CNMV said on Thursday.

The suspension follows news of Criteria's sale of its Agbar stake to Suez Environment, ahead of a full buyout by the French group.

Spain's Telefonica has carried out a planned share swap with China's Unicom, with each company buying $1 billion of the other's shares, it said on Wednesday.

Under the deal, announced in early September, Telefonica's stake in Unicom rises to 8.06% from 5.38%, Telefonica said.

Spain's biggest bank Santander said it planned to maintain its policy of paying half its net profit in dividends in 2010, taking the wind out of its share price after its chief executive had raised hopes of more.

CEO Alfredo Saenz said in an interview in Wednesday's Financial Times that the bank could use a surplus of core capital to pay a special dividend next year.

Santander later said it considered it appropriate to have a strong core capital base that reflects the strength of its balance sheet.

Gas Natural SDG, Spain's largest natural gas company, agreed to sell its 64% stake in Empresa de Energia del Pacifico SA of Colombia for $1.1 billion as part of a plan to cut debt.

Colinversiones, Inversiones Argos and Banca de Inversion Bancolombia will buy the stake in the Colombian power company by making a bid for 66.1% of EPSA's stock at 9,164.84 Colombian pesos ($4.96) a share, Barcelona-based Gas Natural said on Saturday in a regulatory filing. Gas Natural has agreed to accept this offer and predicted the transaction will complete before year-end.

Gas Natural this year finished the acquisition of Union Fenosa SA to add power generation plants and utility clients as it faces increased competition in its domestic gas market. The natural gas supplier is now trying to cut debt following the purchase of that Spanish utility and has targeted asset sales of 3 billion Euros ($4.5 billion).

The Lisbon PSI General finished the session Friday on 2,933.26, down 0.43%.

Portuguese energy company Energias de Portugal, or EDP, said Tuesday that its OPTEP SGPS SA unit has sold 26.98 million shares in Sonaecom SGPS, at a price of Eur1.98 a share.

In total, the EDP unit sold the shares for Eur53.4 million.

Following this disposal, EDP no longer has any Sonaecom shares, EDP said in a filing to Portugal's stock market regulator.

Banco BPI, Portugal's third-largest listed bank, on Thursday posted a 64% rise in its third-quarter net profit mostly due to year-ago market losses on some assets, but its margins shrank in a weak economy.

It said net profit rose to 41.6 million Euros ($62.28 million) -- slightly exceeding the market's consensus of 37 million Euros.

Last year, the bank's net profit was affected by losses booked on its stake in rival Millennium bcp. The stake has since been sold. BPI said that, when adjusted to exclude extraordinary items like the Millennium stake, year-ago profit would have totalled 44.9 million Euros, being 7% above last quarter's.

The bank's net interest income -- the difference between interest paid on deposits and interest charged for loans -- fell 17% to 138 million Euros from the same time of last year, compared to 147 million Euros expected on average by analysts.

Italy's benchmark FTSE MIB Index fell for a fourth day, dropping 392.85, or 1.7%, to 23,420.56 at in Milan.

Edison, Italy's second-biggest utility said its joint venture Elpedison Power in Greece is fully operational. The stock fell 0.6 cents, or 0.5%, to 1.1 Euros.

Fiat: Italy will wait until next month for the release of new auto sales numbers and Fiat's industrial plan before renewing car trade-in incentives for next year, Industry Minister Claudio Scajola said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Rome. "We will act to extend the incentives, maybe defining in advance the way we exit from the incentive program so we don't distort the market," he said.

Separately, analysts at Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Fiat shares to 18 Euros from 16.8 Euros. The stock climbed 19 cents, or 1.8%, to 11.04 Euros.

RCS MediaGroup: Promotora de Informaciones SA doesn't expect a recovery in the Spanish ad market in 2010, Chief Executive Juan Luis Cebrian said on a conference call Thursday. RCS, the publisher of Italy's largest daily newspaper, which also has businesses in Spain, fell 2.2 cents, or 1.6%, to 1.33 Euros.

STMicroelectronics, Europe's largest chipmaker fell for a third day after being cut to "sell" from "hold" at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc Thursday. The stock fell 19 cents, or 3.1%, to 5.91 Euros.

Tiscali: Rights to buy new shares of the Italian Internet company stop trading. The stock plunged 29.05 cents, or 40%, to 43 cents.

UniCredit, Italy's largest bank, dropped 13 cents, or 5%, to 2.49 Euros, the biggest one-day drop in fourth months. The stock also fell for a fourth straight day, closing at a one-month low. The company's Oct. 21 statement that interest margin is expected to fall and Chief Executive Officer Alessandro Profumo's comments Thursday that loan-loss provisions have peaked this year have sparked analyst estimates cuts.

Milan-based Equita Sim Thursday cut its 2010 profit estimate for UniCredit by 13%, while Intermonte cut its 2009 earnings-per-share estimate by 25%.

Athen's Athex Composite ended the week at 2,838.13, up 0.96%.

EFG Eurobank, Greece's second largest lender, is not planning to raise funds via a rights issue, the group's deputy chief executive said on Wednesday.

"There is no reason for a rights issue," Deputy Chief Executive Nikos Karamouzis told reporters during a briefing. "This will be clear with one look at our (capital) ratios when we release results next month."

On Monday Alpha Bank was the latest Greek bank to opt for a cash call to recapitalise and pay back government funds under a liquidity support plan.

Alpha will tap the market for 986 million Euros ($1.47 billion) to retire 940 million Euros worth of preferred shares it sold the government, raising talk in the market that others may follow.

Like Eurobank, Piraeus Bank said on Monday that it is not considering a cash call as its capital adequacy is sound.

"We did a rights issue two years ago and did not use the proceeds for buyouts," Karamouzis said. "I don't see why we should be singing the same tune (with other banks)."

Eurobank earlier this year got a capital injection of 950 million Euros via the sale of preferred shares. It raised another 300 million in July via a non-dilutive hybrid bond issue, with another hybrid planned in the near future.

Karamouzis said the bank will look to exit the government's liquidity support scheme and repay the capital injection once management feels that market conditions have normalised for good, most likely some time in the second half of 2010.

Alpha Bank, Greece's third largest lender, is to hold a rights issue of 986 million Euros to buy back preferred shares sold to the state under a sector support scheme in the global crisis.

Alpha will stage a three-for-ten rights issue at 8 Euros per share, management of the private bank told the Athens bourse in a statement. Completion is due by early December, enabling a resumption of dividends banned under state support.

"The rights issue is expected to provide additional capacity for financing our customers and accelerate our efforts to establish a solid and independent funding capability at competitive terms," CEO Dimitris Mantzounis reported.

Underwriters are a syndicate of investment banks with JP Morgan as global coordinator and joint bookrunner with BofA Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, Citi, Nomura and UBS.

The issue should boost the lender's core Tier 1 ratio, which stood at 9.1% at end-June, by 200 basis points, the statement said.