(MENAFN- Saudi Press Agency) European stocks fell early on Monday, trimming lofty gains made in the previous session, with SAP's profit warning hitting shares in the tech sector, Reuters reported.
Shares in the German business software maker plunged 4.6 percent after it cut its outlook for full-year operating profit, echoing a raft of profit and sales warnings from other tech groups in the past few weeks.
The market's losses were limited, however, by brisk M&A activity, boosting the shares of Nutreco, Adidas and Havas.
Shares in Dutch animal feed and nutrition company Nutreco soared 39 percent after SHV, a privately held Dutch investment firm, said it had reached a conditional agreement to acquire the group for 40 euros ($51) per share, or 2.69 billion euros.
German sportswear firm Adidas AG surged 5.6 percent after the Wall Street Journal reported that an investor group, that includes Jynwel Capital and funds affiliated with the Abu Dhabi government, was planning a $2.2 billion bid to buy Adidas unit Reebok.
Havas also rose, by 5.8 percent, after French tycoon Vincent Bollore launched an exchange offer on the stock on Friday with a view to gaining control of the world's sixth-largest advertising company. Shares in Groupe Bollore dropped 6.9 percent.
FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.4 percent at 1,275.56 points, trimming sharp gains made on Friday when the index surged 2.8 percent following reassuring U.S. macroeconomic data.
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