European Equity Movers: Novartis, HSBC, Repsol, Zeneca, Gemini
London, Jan. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The following stocks are making significant gains or losses in European markets today. The stock symbols are in parentheses after the company name.
The Bloomberg Europe 500 Index was little changed, adding 0.10 points, or 0.05 percent, to 208.84, with gainers and decliners being roughly equal.
Drugmakers fell, led by Novartis AG (NOV SW) after the world's No. 3 drugmaker posted an unexpected fourth-quarter decline in sales of 3 percent as lower revenue at its nutrition and crop protection units offset demand for drugs. Novartis dropped 117 Swiss francs to 2,758. SmithKline Beecham Plc (SB/ LN) fell 21p to 859.5 and Sanofi SA (SQ FP) shed 2.6euro to 169.4. Merck KGaA (MRX GR) lost 2.91 euro to 31.5. after Germany's fifth-biggest drug company also said 1998 sales rose 1.8 percent to 8.118 billion deutsche marks ($4.8 billion), less than expected.
ASM Lithography Holding NV (ASML NA) rose 2.25 euros to 38.15. Salomon Smith Barney raised its recommendation on the shares to ''outperform'' from ''neutral'', after the world's second-largest maker of machines that print images on semiconductors reported 1998 net profit fell 54 percent to 62 million euros ($71.8 million) from 1997, in line with analysts' forecasts. The company said its financial position remains strong and that it expects to increase its market share this year.
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