Collins Stewart Tullett Plc, the world's second-biggest broker of securities trades between banks, tumbled after saying it ended talks to be bought.

The Stoxx 600 lost 0.4 percent to 301.05 at 11:49 a.m. in London. The Stoxx 50 dropped 0.5 percent, while the Euro Stoxx 50, a gauge for the 12 countries using the euro, declined 0.4 percent. Trading may be lighter today as U.S. markets are closed for the Thanksgiving holiday.

The Stoxx 600 yesterday reached its highest since March 2002 as concern eased about the pace of interest-rate increases in Europe and the U.S. Stocks rose in the U.S. a day ago as growing consumer confidence raised investors' expectations for the holiday shopping season.

National indexes declined in 16 of the 18 western European markets. France's CAC dropped 0.5 percent as did the U.K.'s FTSE 100. Germany's DAX fell 0.2 percent.

BP, Europe's largest oil company, dropped 0.8 percent to 652.5 pence. The shares have gained 28 percent this year. Total, the region's third-biggest, slipped 1.4 percent to 217.2 euros. The shares, which have risen 35 percent this year, trade today without the right to a 3-euro dividend.

Energy stocks, the best-performing industry group this year after mining companies, led declines today. The Stoxx 600 Oil & Gas Index dropped 0.8 percent.

HBOS, the U.K.'s fourth-largest bank, fell 1.4 percent to 884.5 pence. St. George Bank Ltd, Australia's fifth-largest lender, had its biggest gain in 18 months in Sydney trading amid speculation it may be bought by HBOS. Neither bank would comment.

Collins Stewart dropped 6.4 percent to 580.5 pence. The company said it became clear that the terms of any offer would not satisfy shareholders because the potential offer was too low. ``The company has therefore terminated all discussions,'' the London-based company said in a statement.

Vestas Wind Systems A/S dropped 16 percent to 114.75 kroner. The world's largest maker of wind turbines cut its 2005 earnings forecast because of component shortages and cost overruns at projects in the U.S. The shares dropped as much as 17 percent.

Claudia Meier, an analyst at Bank Vontobel AG, raised her recommendation on the shares to ``market outperform'' from ``market perform,'' because a ``factor of uncertainty'' was eliminated.

Euronext NV, Europe's second-biggest stock exchange by market value, added 0.9 percent to 37.92 euros. Euronext said third-quarter net income more than tripled to 71.2 million euros ($84 million), beating the 50.5 million-euro estimate in Bloomberg survey.

Union Fenosa SA, Spain's third-biggest power company, rose 2.9 percent to 31.29 euros after Actividades de Construccion & Servicios SA yesterday offered 1 billion euros for an additional 10 percent stake.

The Ifo confidence index declined to 97.8 in November. Economists expected the Munich-based institute's indicator to slip to 98.6 after reaching a revised 98.8 last month, the highest since October 2000, according to the median of 44 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

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