With the exception of Frankfurt, the European stock markets ended in retreat, investors are showing more hesitant after the session dealing with conflicting U.S. indicators, the Paris stock exchange for ending its declining share of 0.24% in 3643 , 14 points.
The pan-European Eurofirst 300 index closed the week down 0.76% but gained 5.3% on the month of July, its biggest gain in four months.
As for values, the construction sector takes prices back down, falling by 3.89% Lafarge, punishing investors lowering the forecast cement demand for 2010.
Prices, however, were supported by some solid corporate results found.Total and closing up 0.94% after posting earnings growth in the second quarter.
Alcatel-Lucent, which announced on Friday its annual targets, jumped 11.07% on the session.
The title, however, BP has lost 1.81% due to new fears about the evolution of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
French banks BNP Paribas, SocGen, Credit Agricole and BPCE, parent company Natixis, have passed the stress tests conducted by European authorities said on Friday the Bank of France.
In a statement, the regulator said that following the test on a scenario of economic decline worse than expected and a new crisis on the European sovereign debt, the four French banks show a ratio of Tier One financial solvency through 9 3% at end 2011.
In this scenario, which holds a particular hypothesis of two years of recession in the euro area in 2010 and 2011, European regulators demanded that they tested 91 European banks show a ratio of at least 6%.
"This is a satisfactory result, not surprisingly, is quite comforting," said Christian Noyer, Governor of the Bank of France at a press briefing.
Christian Noyer, who is also member of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank, said that the total exposure of the four French banks, European sovereign debt amounted to 240 billion euros at end-March, which accounted for 43 billion in their "trading book" (portfolio of financial assets).
He also explained that a risk of default on sovereign debt of a sovereign state had been excluded from testing scenarios.
To restore investor confidence, the European Union 91 European banks submitted to stress tests to ensure that their capital was adequate to cope with a worsening economic conditions and financial market shocks.
Led by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) and drawing lessons from the debt crisis of Greek, tests have included discounts which reduce the market value of some bonds.
Fears of contagion in Europe of the fiscal crisis of Greece has weighed heavily in recent months on financial stocks.
The sector index Stoxx 600 European banks yields almost 5% since the beginning of the year.
Santander is one step closer Monday toward its goal of becoming a bank offering a full service commercial bank in Germany with the acquisition for 555 million euros in the division for the subject of Swedish SEB.
Santander seeks to expand its presence in Europe, especially Germany and Great Britain, and the high growth markets such as Latin America.
"Germany is an important market for Santander.This acquisition is an important step towards achieving our goal of being a commercial bank offering a full service in Europe, "said its chairman Emilio Botin said in a statement.
The Spanish bank believes that its ratio of Tier One capital could fall by ten basis points due to the acquisition, the amount is close to 500 million previously reported by sources close to the situation.
According to head of operations in Latin America, Santander, Francisco Luzon, quoted by the Financial Times, Santander plans to strengthen Colombia and Peru, where its market shares are between 10 and 20%.
Around 9:15 GMT, Santander and SEB yielded respectively 0.69% and 0.76%, while the Stoxx index comprising the major European banking stocks lost 0.66%.
Sales of new cars in France have continued to rise in April, to 1.9% from April 2009, but at a much more slowly, reflecting an impact of declining car scrapping and leaving the uncertainty about the rest of the year.
"This figure is normal. We see a gradual reduction of the effects of scrappage" observes François Roudier, spokesman for the Committee of French car manufacturers.
The spokesman noted "a decline in registrations and orders on new line", small cars that benefited most from the car scrapping. Meanwhile, "we see a rise in average range on some models," he adds.
Carlos da Silva, an analyst at IHS Global Insight, a judge even when the result of April "a little surprising" and speaks of "semi-surprise"."The compact segment is doing rather better than what we expected" while "small cars to fall again mechanically," he notes.
Moreover, "manufacturers have continued to put much money on the table to try to compensate" the premium reduction. They have indeed offered to their customers numerous discounts and promotions. In this context, May will be "a little month of truth," said Carlos da Silva, who expects a decline it expected in April.
"I do not see how that can withstand much more, plus there is not really new models," he said.
French manufacturers are considering a European market decline 9 to 10% this year.1,000 euros last year, the scrapping bonus increased to 700 euro from 1 January, but for vehicles ordered before December 31, the premium remained at its former level for deliveries until the end of March.
This measure was prompted a boom in orders at the end of the year, registrations recorded in the first quarter up 17%. In the first four months of the year, the increase was 12.9% compared to the same period of 2009.
The Minister of Industry Christian Estrosi welcomed in a statement of "the good performance of the market", which "demonstrates the effectiveness of the government strategy of gradual withdrawal of the scrappage scheme".
On 1 July, the scrappage decline further, to 500 euros.
The month of April has been more favorable to French brands, up 8%, as foreign brands, down 4.9%.Of the 190,986 new cars registered last month, the French brands accounted for 56.1% of the market.
The increase was 17.2% for the Renault group and 7.3% for PSA Peugeot Citroen. At Peugeot, we judge that "the effect of scrappage continuous" and "concerns an order for two 206 + and 207," the Director of Commerce France, Olivier Veyrier, said in a statement.