UBS, the world's biggest money manager, slid to a one-month low, and RWE led utilities in their worst performance in seven weeks after US consumer prices rose more than expected. Actelion led drug makers to their steepest retreat in a month after saying pro"t will probably fall this year.

The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index has climbed 26% from last year's low on 13 June as takeovers and better-than-expected earnings fuelled con"dence in equities.

"A lot of the good news is already re"ected in share prices, " said Job Curtis, who manages about $2.2bn at Henderson Global Investors in London. "The results season hasn't really provided a catalyst to take the market higher. In fact, it has led some investors to take pro"ts.'' The Stoxx 600 lost 0.1% to 380.53, down less than two points from the close on Monday, its highest since November 2000. The Stoxx 50 fell 0.3% and the Euro Stoxx 50 was little changed.

National benchmarks declined in 10 of the 18 western European markets. Germany's DAX rose 0.5% and the UK's FTSE 100 slid 0.3%.

France's CAC 40 was little changed.

Carlsberg had its worst week in nine months. The Danish brewer said pro"t growth will slow this year on marketing and investment costs.

The shares lost 5.4%.

Clariant dropped 4.8%.

Fourth-quarter pro"t increased to 23 million Swiss francs ( 14m), less than the SwF52m estimate in a Bloomberg survey, because of higher raw material and energy prices.

Actelion tumbled 11%. The Swiss biotechnology company said operating income probably will be SwF75m this year, compared to SwF268m a year earlier, because of costs from an acquisition and employee stock options.

Analysts foresee earnings at Stoxx 600 companies rising 7.6% on average in 2007. That's down from an earlier projection of 8.1% in January.

Not all companies disappointed last week. Volkswagen, Europe's largest car maker, said on Tuesday that 2006 pro"t more than doubled to 2.75bn after new Audi and Skoda models attracted buyers and a tax gain added to earnings. The shares closed the week up 8.3% at 94.94. The stock climbed to as high as 95, the highest in eightand-a-half years. Commerzbank raised its price estimate for the stock to 102 from 87, saying results were "surprisingly good".

CSR, a UK maker of microchips used in Nokia mobile phones, said on Thursday that sales growth will accelerate this quarter as much as 19% from a year earlier, sending the shares up 8.8% to a four-month high.

UBS fell 2.2% to SwF75.90, the lowest since 22 January. Credit Agricole, the second-biggest bank in France, fell 1.8%. RWE, Germany's second-largest utility, dropped 4.9%.

Rio Tinto and Xstrata led mining stocks to a record high as copper headed for its biggest weekly gain since May. The Stoxx 600 Basic Resources Index climbed 2.8%, the biggest gain among 18 industries in the broader measure.

Shares of Rio Tinto, the world's third-biggest mining company, rose 3.9%. Xstrata, the fourth-largest copper producer, climbed 5.6%. Copper gained 7.8% last week on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange on renewed demand by hedge funds. Commodity-fund investments may rise 25 % in 2007, according to London-based NewFinance Capital LLP.