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European shares mixed as investors focus on OMX deal

European shares posted mixed results on Friday after trading in negative territory for most of the day, with many investors focused on a takeover bid for Scandinavian stock exchange operator OMX by the US NASDAQ market.

London's FTSE 100 index of blue chip shares closed 0.08 percent higher at 6,570.50 points.

In Paris the CAC 40 added 0.15 percent to 6,057.49 and Frankfurt's DAX 30 rose by 0.54 percent to 7,739.20 points.

In Stockholm, OMX shares leapt by 10.83 percent to 199.5 kronor after NASDAQ agreed a bid for the Scandinavian stock exchange operator worth 25.1 billion kronor (US$3.7 billion).

The OMX deal, subject to shareholder approval, marked the second transatlantic stock market alliance in two months, following the acquisition of the main European market Euronext by the New York Stock Exchange.

Back in London, shares in the independent television broadcaster ITV closed with a gain of 3.93 percent at 119.10 pence after leaping by almost 6.0 percent in intra-day trades.

Market rumors said that the media group BSkyB has sold its holding in ITV to the RTL group, which would leave open the possibility of an offer for all of ITV.

No confirmation was available of the rumors, which came a day after Britain's Department of Trade and Industry said it had referred BSkyB's part purchase of ITV to the country's Competition Commission.

In Frankfurt, shares in German-US automaker DaimlerChrysler gained 1.83 percent to 67.20 euros, with investment funds buying the stock following the sale of Chrysler to private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, dealers said.

In Amsterdam, the AEX index slipped by 0.10 percent to 535.48 points, the Swiss SMI was up by 0.26 percent at 9,381.34, in Milan the SP/MIB added 0.18 percent to 43,019, in Madrid the IBEX-35 gave up 0.28 percent to 15,053.20 and in Brussels the BEL-20 closed 0.70 percent lower at 4,671.71.
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