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Belgian shares end easier, shrug off rate cuts

1430 GMT - Belgian shares ended a narrowly-traded session easier after shrugging off a Belgian National Bank decision to cut its discount rate 50 bp to 4.00 pct and its emergency lending rate 75 bp to 8.00 pct. The move had been widely expected following a Bundesbank rate cut earlier today.

Bel-20 index closed 1.33 points or 0.09 percent lower at 1,475.16, after spending the day in a seven-point range. Volume was 1.2 billion francs of Belgian shares.

More range trading forecast in absence of fresh news.

Steelmaker Arbed up 2.8 percent, with recent weakness seen as a buying opportunity. (BACKGROUND/MARKET DETAILS FOLLOW)

BRUSSELS, Aug 24 (Reuter) - Belgian shares ended a session of range-trading slightly easier, despite a decision by the Belgian national bank to cut two official interest rates.

The Bel-20 index ended 1.33 points or 0.09 percent lower at 1,475.16 after touching 1,480.46 mid-afternoon following a decision by the Bundesbank to cut two key rates, a move which had only partly been anticipated by the market.

The German action made a Belgian rate cut almost certain, and the Bel-20 had already peaked when the Belgian Central Bank said it was cutting its discount rate 50 bp to 4.00 pct and its emergency lending rate 75 bp to 8.00 pct, effective Friday.

Volume was 1.2 billion francs worth of Belgian shares, compared with 2.2 billion yesterday.

"On the rates, we had what we were expecting. We've seen some profit taking," one dealer said.

He was fairly neutral in his outlook for the market.

"There's a risk now that people will think this was the last rate cut for this cycle," he said, adding that much of the good news expected from the upcoming earnings seasons may well have been discounted in prices already.

"There's a risk of selling on results, as we saw with Solvay," he said.

Luxembourg steel-stock Arbed was among top gainers, up 2.8 percent to 4,060, though volume was only 4600 stocks. One broker said the stock's recent weakness was a good opportunity to buy.

Fellow steel firm Cockerill ended flat at 184 francs with 220,000 shares traded. The stock was unaffected, dealers said, by news the Lusosider consortium had outbid Cockerill's 2.7 billion escudo joint offer for Portugal's SN-Planos.

Shipping firm CMB extended yesterday's 100 franc fall after disappointing first half 1995 results announced late on Tuesday and closed 15 francs lower at 2,165.-Reuter