Vienna shares close lower, led by financials, Telekom Austria supports UPDATE

(Updating with full report) VIENNA (Thomson Financial) - Shares closed lower, led down by financials and tracking bearish sentiment across fellow European bourses, but supported somewhat by gains in Telekom Austria. The ATX closed down 0.76 percent or 32.72 points at 4,262.17. The ATX Prime closed 0.79 percent or 15.90 points lower at 2,005.87. The euro was trading at $1.5451, compared with $1.5408 at the same time yesterday.

Mirroring losses across financial shares on Friday, Vienna Insurance Group declined 1.84 percent to 48.65 euros after the worlds largest insurer AIG posted a record loss for the first quarter on bad U.S. mortgage debt. Erste Bank lost 2.32 percent to 46.40 euros as the share went ex-dividend at 0.75 euros a share, additionally pressured by negative sentiment across financials.

Retreating for the second day, fellow bank Raiffeisen International shed 1.84 percent to 98.26 euros after reporting lower-than-expected first quarter earnings yesterday, which in turn sparked a rating downgrade by brokers at Merrill Lynch.

Travelling lower on profit-taking, Andritz fell 2.81 percent to 40.83 euros after the share outperformed yesterday in a weaker market, gaining over 3 percent. JP Morgan had reiterated its 'overweight' rating on the engineering group on the back of the strong first-quarter order intake Andritz reported on Tuesday.

Also closing lower on profit-taking, RHI slipped 3.44 percent to 30.64 euros after the refractories company gained almost 25 percent in two weeks. Shares in heavyweight Telekom Austria supported the index, gaining 1.58 percent to 15.39 euros on the back of a media report this morning that the company's core shareholder is mulling splitting the company into two separate groups and listing them separately.

Intercell added 2.74 percent to 28.15 euros ahead of first quarter results to be published pre-market on Tuesday. Analysts expect the vaccine company's net loss to narrow further in the three-month period, while revenue is expected to increase fourfold on the same quarter a year before.

Shares in OMV firmed 0.20 percent to 51.20 euros, as crude oil prices continued to surge this week.

Other constituents closing in positive territory were Palfinger, which edged up 0.66 percent to 25.94 euros, and Bwin, which closed up 2.38 percent at 21.09 euros.

Strabag last dealt at 46.89 euros, up 0.19 percent on the day. Analysts at Goldman Sachs removed the construction company from its 'conviction buy' list, but kept its 'buy' recommendation.

The Vienna Stock Exchange will be closed for the Pentecost bank holiday on Monday.

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