Arcandor up on talk of Wal-Mart interest

FRANKFURT/PARIS (Reuters) - Shares in Arcandor rose more than 12 percent on Wednesday as traders cited market talk Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, was interested in the German retail and tourism group.

"Wal-Mart apparently wants to buy a stake in Arcandor," one trader said.

Arcandor and Wal-Mart were not immediately available for comment.

Shares in Arcandor have lost more than 80 percent of their value in the past 12 months as the German retailer, which also controls Europe's second-largest travel company Thomas Cook, struggled to cope with weakening consumer demand, particularly at its department store unit Karstadt.

It recorded a loss of 746 million euros ($988.8 million) in its past fiscal year.

By 11:05 a.m. British time, trading volume in Arcandor's shares represented 49 percent of the stock's 90-day average daily volume, compared with 22 percent for the MDAX index.

(Reporting by Stefan Schaaf in Frankfurt and Blaise Robinson in Paris; Editing by David Holmes)