Europe: Cautious dance before the ECB meeting

With the exception of London's FTSE 100 index, which fell 0.3 percent, there were generally small increases on the European stock markets on Wednesday.

The general European Stoxx 600 index rose by 0.1 per cent. to 265.56 after taking small jumps up during the day. Among the index stocks, the British soft drinks manufacturer Britvic rose to the top with an increase of 12.6 percent to 369.9 pence. The increase began early in the day, when Bloomberg News reported that there is talk of a merger with soft drink competitor AG Barr, which among other things produces the popular Orangina-soft drink.

Along with Britvic in the cheerful end of the Stoxx 600 were Greek betting company OPAP, which rose 7 percent to 5.94 euros along with National Bank of Greece, which jumped 5 percent up to 1.46 euros.

In the bottom of the Stoxx 600 the Nokia share took the unflattering spotlight with a decrease by close to 13.0 percent to 1.99 euros. The share tumbled down  after the mobile manufacturer's joint news conference with Microsoft, where the new Lumia 920-model with Windows Phone 8 was presented. The market was not impressed, and that hurt the Nokia share. Together with Nokia at the bottom was also the Vestas share that after a rally Tuesday had to bite a price drop at 8.3 percent at a price of DKK 44.5 Wednesday.

In France Legrand took the place as today's most exciteing share in  the CAC index as the electronics company took a leap upwards of 3.0 percent to 28.39 euros. At the opposite end was STMicroelectronics not as electrified  - the manufacturer of circuit and smaller electronics took a fall of 4.9 percent to 4.40 euros.

In London, BP found themselves in deep water after the group received a slap in the face from the Justice Department, which Wednesday formally accused the oil company of gross negligence in connection with the major Deepwater Horizon case of an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The share price dipped by 2.9 percent to 423.9 pence.

The European stock markets remained largely hesitant because the monetary policy meeting of the European Central Bank Thursday has engaged investors in a silent dance on the spot. It will probably last until Thursday afternoon when Mario Draghi is expected to unveil the rescue plan to get the economy in the hard-pressed euro countries back on track.