LONDON, England (Reuters) -- European shares closed a shade lower in a trendless market on Friday, with robust gains for miner Rio Tinto and retailer Carrefour offset by losses for some heavyweight oil, telecoms and bank stocks.
The benchmark FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares eased 0.01 percent to 1,597.74 points. The index reached its highest level since late 2000 on Thursday but ended the week with a loss of almost 0.2 percent.
Some market watchers said European equities could be facing a near-term downward correction, particularly if investors revert to the strategy of "sell in May and go away."
"We are expecting a distinct consolidation in stock markets in the near term, in the course of which share price setbacks of around 15 percent would not surprise us," said Heinz-Gerd Sonnenschein, strategist at Germany's Postbank.
Helaba, another German bank, forecast that the the DJ EuroStoxx 50 index would sink to 4,000 points by the end of this year's third quarter, a loss of 10 percent.
Rio Tinto rose 4.1 percent on Friday as metal prices firmed and on persistent merger and acquisition talk.
"Rio Tinto and other miners are up today ... because metal prices are rallying," a trader said. "The speculation of Rio involved in some corporate activity is not going away."
Copper prices rose 3 percent, zinc added 2.5 percent and nickel climbed 3.3 percent.
The DJ EuroStoxx basic resources index, which includes mining stocks, was the day's top sectoral performer in Europe with a rise of 1.1 percent.
Renewed takeover talk also lifted Carrefour, the world's second-largest retailer, by 2.3 percent, traders said. Earlier this month, the stock rallied on talk of a leveraged buyout. Rival Metro put on 1.9 percent.
DaimlerChrysler rose 1.8 percent, with analysts saying investment funds bought into the stock following the carmaker's agreement to sell most of its struggling U.S. arm, Chrysler, to buyout group Cerberus.
Outside the blue-chip companies, shares in Nordic stock exchange operator OMX jumped 11 percent after U.S. Nasdaq agreed to buy it for $3.7 billion.
"Strategically, this deal makes sense," WestLB said in a note, raising its target price for OMX to 208.1 Swedish crowns -- the value of the Nasdaq bid -- from 190 crowns.
Among other European bourses, Spain's BME climbed 3.6 percent, Germany's Deutsche Boerse advanced 1.8 percent and London Stock Exchange rose 1.1 percent.
The price of London crude fell below $71 a barrel, hurting oil majors such as Royal Dutch Shell and BP, both of which fell 0.3 percent. The sector index also lost 0.3 percent.
Telecommunications stocks dropped 0.5 percent with Telefonica down 0.5 percent, Vodafone 0.4 percent lower and France Telecom losing 0.3 percent.
Vodafone is due to report results for its 2006/2007 financial year on Tuesday and some analysts are expecting the company to forecast lower margins for 2008 as competition intensifies in its core European markets.
Europe's leading blue-chip loser was Deutsche Bank, down 3.1 percent as the stock went ex-dividend.
Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis, the junior partner in a trio led by Royal Bank of Scotland that is fighting Barclays for ABN AMRO , fell 0.9 percent.
"If you are looking for someone ending up vulnerable, it will be them (Fortis)," said a London-based analyst with a U.S. investment bank, who asked not to be identified, commenting on a what might happen if the consortium's bid were to fail.
But Swiss bank UBS rose 1.3 percent, having said it expects a 2.1 billion Swiss franc ($1.71 billion) gain when it sells its 20.7 percent stake in smaller rival Julius Baer.
UBS said it would either sell the stake, valued at around 4 billion francs, to a single buyer or dispose of it in the market, and that it would use the proceeds to buy back its own shares.
Around Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 edged up 0.1 percent, France's CAC 40 added 0.2 percent and Germany's DAX gained 0.5 percent while Spain's IBEX fell 0.3 percent.
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