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Dutch equities show

mixed movements

AMSTERDAM: Dutch shares travelled in a wide range on Tuesday, at first losing one percent in line with an overnight drop on Wall Street then touching an all-time peak on a strong dollar, before slipping back to close mixed.

Wall Street's 1.5 percent sell-off on Monday looked like being recovered in early Tuesday business and the AEX index appeared on course for another record close. But a late reversal in the New York market saw a rally attempt here fizzle out.

The AEX index finished 0.15 points firmer at 537.08, bouncing up from an early session low of 532.81 to an all-time high of 539.82, beating the 538.96 previous peak on April 2.

U.S. jobs data last week pointing to a stronger than expected U.S. economy prompted heavy selling on Wall Street on Monday while the dollar gained ground on Tuesday.

"The story today is the dollar -- most of the power behind the market today is coming from the currency market," a dealer said. The dollar was trading this afternoon at 1.6670 guilders, up from 1.6528 on Thursday.

Dealers said a 2.90 guilder surge in Royal Dutch to 242.90 guilders played a big part in pushing the AEX into positive territory today. "It's not really that surprising if you think Royal Dutch accounts for 10 percent of the index," said one.

"Royal Dutch has consolidated above the 240 guilder resistance level with the help of the dollar today," he said.

Dealers said sentiment here was still strong, despite the shaky New York performance. "It wasn't particularly surprising that our market went down at the opening. It looks as though maybe interest rates might not go down any further in the U.S. but in Europe there's still scope for lower rates," said one.

"Of course when Wall Street goes down a lot we won't go up on our own," said another dealer. "But what happened over there is a bit different to the situation here," he said, adding a modest Dutch interest rate cut had appeared on the cards today.

But dealers said figures later this week would be carefully watched for any fresh signs of powerful recovery. "We've got (U.S.) CPI and PPI figures later this week and these will be very important because the jobs figures last week had such a big impact on Wall Street yesterday," said a dealer.

"If these figures show inflation is picking up you will see some large scale profit taking on Wall Street and that will have a big impact on Europe," the dealer added.

"People are expecting some rise in the inflation figures," added the dealer. "But if these figures are a lot higher than the forcasts then we are in trouble."

Publisher VNU charged 1.10 guilders, or 4.00 percent, higher to 28.70 guilders, on news it expected to raise its operating margin to 15 percent of sales in four to five years from just under 12 percent now.

It also said it expected profits to show a further rise in 1996 after in March announcing 1995 net from ordinary operations had risen 26 percent to 274 million guilders.

Post and telecoms group Dutch PTT slipped 1.80 guilders to 63.80. "It's still natural profit-taking after the results last week," said a dealer. Cyclicals attracted some demand with DSM up 90 cents to 158.10 guilders.-Reuter