EU STOCKS flat (01.07.2013)

Europe stocks gave up an early lead to turn flat as the new quarter kicked off with gains for Hennes & Mauritz AB, whose shares lifted after a broker upgrade, and Siemens AG, which rose after it sold partner Nokia Corp its stake in a joint venture.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index  was flat at 284.91. The index fell nearly 3% for the last quarter.

Heavily-weighed H&M  jumped 3% after the Swedish retailer was upgraded to buy from neutral at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.

Another big gainer was Siemens AG, which rose over 2% on news that Nokia Corp. will pay 1.7 billion euros ($2.2 billion) for Siemens’s 50% stake in the two companies’ telecommunications-equipment joint venture NSN. Shares of Nokia rose over 6%.

On the downside, shares of Volvo AB  fell more than 1% after Goldman Sachs removed the maker of trucks, buses and construction equipment from its pan-European conviction-buy list.

The FTSE 100 index  rose 0.1% to 6,222.74.

UK data surprised to the upside which resulted in the pair dropping over 40 pips. PMI came in as 52.5 beating expectations of 51.5. Mortgage Approvals for May 58.242k vrs expectations of 55.05k. Net Lending to Individuals was lower at £1b vrs £1.4b consensus.

The German DAX 30 index  gave up gains to drop 0.7% to 7,900.42, with shares of BASF SE  off over 1% and Bayer AG  down 1%.

The French CAC 40 index  fell 0.3% to 3,727.23.

The final euro-zone manufacturing purchasing managers index showed a 16-month high of 48.8 in June, which was revised slightly higher from a prior reading of 48.7, Markit said. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate is slightly better than the consensus, readins12.1% vrs 12.3% respectively.

Germany’s PMI was revised down, to 48.6 from 48.7. France’s PMI was revised up to 48.4 from 48.3.

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