German profit warnings knock bourses Profit warnings from utility company Eon and K+S, the fertiliser maker, set an unsettled tone in Europe as the region's major bourses continued to fall. Eon swung into a €179m loss in the third quarter, compared with a net profit of €173m a year earlier, prompting the German group to lower its earnings forecast for next year. "Despite multiple disposals, Eon has the wrong assets in the current market environment, in our view," analysts at HSBC wrote in a morning note. The bank has cut its earnings-per-share forecast for the group, and cut its target price from €21 to €15. Analysts also forecast a dividend cut in 2013 to €0.9. UBS also cut its price target from €17.50 to €16. Shares slumped 8.6 per cent to €15.12, against a 0.5 per cent fall on the Xetra Dax to 7,135.88. K+S added to the sense of gloom in Frankfurt. The potash and salt miner cut its 2012 operating profit outlook to the bottom of its forecast range. Shares fell 4.8 per cent to €34.18 as the group announced it expected earnings before interest and tax to come in around €820m, compared with €906.2m last year. It had previously targeted a range of €820m-€900m for 2012. More widely, European markets echoed this negative sentiment as developments in Greece continued to dictate news and Eurozone leaders struggled to agree on the country's budget deficit targets. On Monday evening finance ministers postponed an agreement on an aid payment for Greece as the EU and International Monetary Fund creditors openly disagreed on how quickly Greece should reduce its debt. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.4 per cent at 1,089.85. Telecom Italia trimmed back some of the previous session gains after an announcement on Monday that Egyptian investor Naguib Sawiris was considering taking a large interest in the company. The shares, which gained more than 4 per cent on Monday, slid back 0.7 per cent to €0.62 on Tuesday morning. The wider FTSE MIB was down 0.2 per cent to 15,085.26. The Italian treasury is expected to sell €6.5bn of 12-month bills on Tuesday. Meanwhile, a record-beating set of results from Sonova provided a bit of optimism in the market. The Swiss hearing aid maker announced its first-half sales jumped 14.3 per cent to SFr872m, against a forecast SFr853m. The group announced net profit of SFr149m, beating market forecasts, and said it was on track to meet its full-year targets. Shares jumped 6.8 per cent to SFr99.45, against a 0.3 per cent fall on the Swiss SMI index to 6,677.25. The French CAC 40 index fell 0.8 per cent to 3,385.52, while Spain's Ibex 35 index slid 0.6 per cent to 7,524.1.