By Sara Sjolin, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Here are some of the companies whose
shares are making notable moves in Thursday's European trading
session.
Gainers
Telecom Italia SpA climbed 3.6% after Bloomberg News reported
that former Telstra Corp. and Orange SA Chief Executive Officer Sol
Trujillo is planning a bid for the Italian company.
Air France-KLM rose 2.3% after the airline said it has given up
on plans to expand its Transavia low-cost airline across Europe, in
a bid to halt a strike by its French pilots.
Shares of Cairn Energy PLC picked up 2.8%. The oil-and-gas
company said it agreed to sell a 10% stake in the Catcher
development and adjacent area in the North Sea in an effort to
reduce its capital expenditure.
Shares of Direct Line Insurance Group PLC gained 0.8% after the
insurer said it is selling its international unit to Spanish
insurer Mapfre SA for 550 million euros ($705.62 million) and will
return the proceeds to shareholders.
Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (RBS) added 0.5% as the bank
said Chairman Philip Hampton will step down during 2015 to become
new chairman at GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK). GSK shares were up
0.7%.
Decliners
Shares of Hennes & Mauritz AB slid 3.8% after the Swedish
fashion retailer said sales in the fiscal fourth quarter got off to
a slow start.
Hargreaves Lansdown PLC dropped 4.2% after RBC Capital Markets
cut the asset manager to sector perform from outperform.
Danone SA gave up 2.3% as J.P. Morgan Cazenove downgraded the
French yogurt maker to underweight from neutral. The analysts said
recent data pointing to a potential slowdown in the U.S. and Russia
as well as uncertainties in China led to the downgrade.
Shares of Hammerson PLC dropped 2.1% after the retail landlord
said it will sell new shares worth around 400 million pounds
($652.8 million) to buy 40% of Highcross Shopping Centre in
Leicester.
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