European midday: Banks largely lower

Europe's main markets remain in the red in midday dealings as investors consider a mixed bag of results in the banking sector.Quarterly profits at Societe Generale beat analyst forecasts, climbing more than threefold, helped by a good performance of its French retail business.The Paris-based bank saw net income rise to €1.08bn in the three months ended June from €309m in the same period last year.Lloyds is very much back in the black after posting a profit of £1.6bn for the first half of 2010, twice as much as some analysts had forecast. The bank, which lost almost £4bn this time last year and is still 41%-owned by the government, added that total impairments more than halved to £6.55bn from £13.40bn a year ago, largely driven by Wholesale.Deutsche Postbank's second-quarter net profit jumped to €57m from €15m in 2009.Meanwhile, Allied Irish Bank reported a record €1.73bn net loss in the first half of the year compared with €786m last time.Late Tuesday, Italy's UniCredit said second-quarter net profit dropped 70% to €148m due to a drop in trading income and a €162m goodwill impairment on its Kazakhstan unit.Santander's UK arm has confirmed the acquisition of more than 300 branches from Royal Bank of Scotland for £1.65bn, slightly less than expected. The deal will catapult Santander UK into the number two slot in UK retail banking. It already owns Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bingley.Impairment provisions were sharply lower at Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered in the first half of 2010 as pre-tax profit improved 10% year on year.Across the markets, the Dax in Frankfurt is 23 points lower at 6,285, while the Cac in down Paris 18 points at 3,729. Adidas is leading the fallers in Frankfurt despite raising its full-year outlook after posting second-quarter net profits of €126m from €9m last time."We had an outstanding first half year driven by the FIFA World Cup 2010, and the resurgence of the Reebok brand in North America," said chief executive Herbert Hainer.It's looking like BP may have sealed the leaking Maconda well in the Gulf of Mexico by pumping it full of mud from vessels on the surface - a process known as "static kill". The procedure started at 9pm UK time on Tuesday and continued for the next eight hours. The well now "appears to have reached a static condition", BP said this morning.On the economic front, the Markit services business activity index for the 16-nation eurozone rose to 55.8 from 55.5 in June.CAC 40 - RisersEDF (EDF) € 34.85 +4.62%Societe Generale (GLE) € 46.06 +1.45%Cap Gemini (CAP) € 37.37 +0.36%Sanofi-Aventis (SAN) € 45.81 +0.32%GDF Suez (GSZ) € 26.38 +0.30%Air Liquide (AI) € 87.89 +0.25%Essilor International (EI) € 47.94 +0.05%Pernod Ricard (RI) € 61.17 +0.00%CAC 40 - FallersRenault (RNO) € 34.71 -2.69%Peugeot (UG) € 23.25 -2.13%Lafarge (LG) € 41.42 -2.05%Credit Agricole (ACA) € 10.60 -1.90%AXA (CS) € 14.49 -1.66%Vallourec (VK) € 74.65 -1.66%Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) € 2.30 -1.46%BNP Paribas (BNP) € 55.02 -1.38%Schneider Electric (SU) € 90.16 -1.36%Dexia (DEXB) € 3.90 -1.24%