STOCKS NEWS EUROPE-Profit warning rumours pressure Adidas

STOCKS NEWS Reuters Results diary

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10:39GMT 27March2009-Adidas falls on talk of possible profit warning

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Shares in Adidas ADSG.DE fall 1.6 percent, among top German blue chip decliners .PL.GDAXI, with traders citing market talk that the sports equipment supplier might cut its 2009 guidance due to weakening sales in Asia and large inventories.

Traders say the rumours may have originated from a Merrill Lynch note.

Adidas declines to comment. In early March, it said it expects group sales to drop at up to mid-single-digit rates in 2009 and sees margins, net income and earnings per share (EPS) declining due to higher operating costs.

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10:14GMT 27March2009-WestLB upgrade to "buy" boosts Rheinmetall

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Shares in Rheinmetall (RHMG.DE) gain 6.1 percent, making it one of the top performers among German midcaps .MDAXI, as WestLB upgrades its stance on the automotive and defence company to "buy" from "neutral" and pegs its price target at 36.6 euros.

The brokerage points to prompt action on the company's automotive side to cut costs and strong demand on defence side as reason for its upgrade.

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10:16GMT 27Mar2009-Public Service Properties up on FY numbers

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Shares in Public Service Properties Investment (PSPI.L) climb 4.2 percent as the company issues a bullish set of final results, which prompts Evolution Securities to repeat its "buy" rating saying revenues and the balance sheet is in good shape.

The European care home investment company posts a 14 percent rise in operating profit to 14.8 million pounds, maintains its final dividend of 4 pence and says it is compliant with all its banking covenants, while reporting its net asset value (NAV) fell marginally to 155.1 pence from 156.3 a year previous.

"The disparity between PSPI's share price and its reported NAV suggests the market believes either the company or the nursing home sector is in distress. Neither is the case," says Evolution Securities in a note.

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10:03GMT 27March2009-JKX down on Koshekhablskoye field delay

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Shares in JKX Oil & Gas (JKX.L) fall 6.3 percent after the eastern European gas producer announces further delays in the start-up of its Koshekhablskoye field in Russia, which Evolution Securities says highlights the difficulties of doing business in the Ukraine and Russia.

The broker says "the persistent late running of the programme detracts from the underlying growth story," adding "other companies are doing a better job of delivering on a growth strategy."

The news takes the gloss off the JKX's 13 percent rise in full-year pretax profit to $127.6 million on the back of a 12 percent increase in revenue to $207 million and an optimistic outlook.

Evolution says the rise in revenue and pretax profit is down to higher gas prices and disguises a 12 percent fall in production over the year.

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09:43GMT 27March2009-SAP falls; estimates seen too high

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Shares in SAP (SAPG.DE) fall 3.5 percent, making them the top decliners among German largecaps .GDAXI, as traders say comments the software maker made in its annual report filed with the U.S. SEC are unsettling investors and may highlight that consensus estimates are too high for the company.

"We also assume that our results in the first half of 2009, and especially in the first quarter, will hardly be comparable with our very good performance in the first half of 2008 before the beginning of the economic crisis," the software maker writes in the report.

"The comments are not really new, but highlight that analyst forecasts for the first and second quarter might still be too high and will have to come down," says a Frankfurt-based trader.

SAP reiterated its guidance for 2009 and expects an operating margin of 24.5 percent to 25.5 percent versus 28.2 percent in 2008.

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09:40GMT 27March2009-Commerzbank in demand, technical revival continues

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Shares in Germany's Commerzbank (CBKG.DE) rise 10 percent, topping the DAX .GDAXI leaderboard, with traders saying the stock is catching up with the sector after above-average losses earlier this year.

"There's demand for financial stocks and there's some short-covering. Commerzbank fell so much and is now continuing to recover," a trader says.

"It's a kind of a comeback, driven mainly by technicals rather than today's annoucements," another trader says, referring to the bank's 2008 annual report.

"It was the most hit DAX stock recently, it was slammed down extremely," this trader says. Commerzbank fell 73 percent between end-November and early March. The DJ Stoxx banks index .SX7P, which lost 48 percent in the same period, is up 0.3 percent.

For more on Commerzbank's annual report double click on [ID:nLR115587]

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09:38GMT 27March2009-Iride, Enia up on merger confirmation

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Shares in North Italian utilities Iride SpA IRD.MI and Enia SpA EN.MI each gain around 10 percent, continuing to react to Thursday's confirmation by Iride's board it will go ahead with their merger and seek shareholder approval.

One Milan-based energy sector analyst says the confirmation has removed uncertainty on the merger which has built up since the two companies agreed last October to a share swap of 4.2 Iride shares for each Enia share.

The combined group would have a market capitalisation of about $1.3 billion, according to Reuters data. [ID:nLQ495443]

"This mass of uncertainty has gone. The rise is all due to the contrast between the positive news on the merger and the unsustainably (low) price which Iride's share had reached," the analyst said.

A second Milan-based analyst said that although the merger confirmation was not a surprise Iride shares have lost a lot on worries the merger might not take place, adding he did not see other factors at work.

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09:15GMT 27March2009-Trading Emission up; brokers repeat "buy"

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Shares in Trading Emissions (TREM.L) gain 4.2 percent after the renewable energy investment company posts its interim results, prompting KBC Peel Hunt and Numis to maintain their "buy" ratings.

Trading Emissions posts a first-half pretax loss of 126.7 million pounds versus a 74.4 million pound profit for the same period in 2007, but says its cash is up to 203 million pounds on March 27, 2009, from 139 million pounds on June 30, 2008, and it sees its full-year dividend between 4 and 5 pence.

KBC Peel Hunt, which raises its target price to 118 pence from 108 pence, says it is impressed with Trading Emissions' cash balance and sees this underpinning the company's recovery.

Numis says the company remains a play on the back of weakening Carbon prices -- down to 10 euros on Thursday from 13.3 euros at December 31, 2008 -- and believes the best way to play the situation is to be long on Trading Emissions and short carbon.

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09:07GMT 27March2009-Air France-KLM loses altitude after warning

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Shares in Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA) drop 4.8 percent after Europe's largest airline warns of a 200 million euro ($271.4 million) operating loss in its financial year ending on March 31.

"While this announcement is almost certainly the last of the negative news for the share, we do not expect newsflow to improve before end-April," one trader says.

After one hour of trading, the volume on Air France-KLM shares already represents 44 percent of the stock's 90-day average daily volume, compared with 11 percent for France's CAC 40 .FCHI.

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09:06GMT 27March2009-BMW higher after SG upgrades to "buy"

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Shares in BMW (BMWG.DE) gain 4.7 percent to 23.51 euros, pushing them to the top of German blue chips .GDAXI and making them the top performer among European auto stocks .SXAP, after Societe Generale raises the automaker to "buy" from "hold" in a sector review.

SocGen upgrades the sector to "overweight" from "neutral". "After significant underperformance, the auto sector is ready to rebound and NOW is the right time to buy the Auto sector," SocGen analysts say in note.

"Don't missthe rebound: we estimate this is the right time to fa vour Automobiles as newsflow is already improving and we expect production to improve going forward."

Within the sector, Renault (RENA.PA) is up 4.5 percent and PSA Peugeot Citroen (PEUP.PA) adds 2.1 percent, while the DJ Stoxx European auto index .SXAP puts on 2.6 percent.

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