By Carla Mozee, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- These stocks are making notable moves in
European trading Friday.
Balfour Beatty PLC shares surged 8.4% as the construction and
services company said it is in preliminary merger talks with rival
Carillion PLC .
British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC shares pulled back 5.3% after
the British broadcaster said it will pay 4.9 billion pounds ($8.3
billion) to buy Sky Italia and a 57.4% stake in Sky Deutschland
from 21st Century Fox Inc. (NWS). The deal paves the way for BSkyB
to create a pay-TV business across Europe.
LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton shares dropped 5.8% after the
luxury-goods firm said first-half profit fell 4%, highlighting the
sector's exposure to fluctuations in foreign-exchange rates.
Pearson PLC gained 4.5% as the publisher and education products
provider backed its full-year forecast.
Shares of Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC leapt 12% as the
company said it expects pretax profit of GBP2.65 billion for the
first half of the year, compared with GBP1.37 billion in the
year-ago period. Second-quarter net profit fell on charges.
Vodafone GroupPLC gained 2.4%, with the mobile-phone industry
heavyweight saying there's signs of stabilization in some key
European markets, even as quarterly revenue grew at a
lower-than-expected pace.
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