Vivendi advances on boost from Fitch The agreed purchase of Aegis, the UK-listed advertising group, for £3.2bn by Dentsu gave a fillip to media companies, with Vivendi advancing 7.9 per cent to €15.77 in Paris this week. The media and telecoms company was also boosted when Fitch said a possible restructuring of the group would not necessarily be bad for bondholders. The group is under fire because its market capitalisation is far below the probable value of its assets, which include Universal and French pay-TV group Canal Plus. On Thursday, Jean-Rene Fourtou, chairman, was quoted as saying the company may sell its $8.1bn stake in Activision, the video game maker. Thyssen Krupp, the German steelmaker, gained 10.6 per cent, for the biggest rise on the FTSE Eurofirst 300 this week, to €14.51, attenuating a 28.3 per cent fall over the past three months. On Tuesday, Macquarie raised its target on the group's share price. The FTSE Eurofirst 300 rose 0.9 per cent to 1042.63 this week, when early gains were erased on Thursday amid fears about the health of the world economy. Carrefour, the French retailer, defied expectations of another profit warning on Thursday when the world's second-biggest retailer by market capitalisation said total sales fell 0.3 per cent, less than analysts had predicted. It said efforts to revive its French hypermarket business were starting to bear fruit. The shares gained 7.7 per cent to €14.54 this week. In Paris the CAC 40 edged up 0.4 per cent to 3,180.81. News that Neelie Kroes, Europe's digital commissioner, had given the large European telecoms groups a boost by backing down on a threat to cut pricing of their networks to encourage investment in European infrastructure led to share price gains in the sector. Deutsche Telekom gained 8.0 per cent to €9.18 while Britain's BT advanced 3.3 per cent to 222.3p. Germany's Xetra Dax index gained 2.3 per cent to 6,557.1 this week. Peugeot tumbled 8.4 per cent to €6.48 after it announced a plant closure and 6,500 job losses in France. French ministers made clear their disapproval of the move by the company, which has received €4bn in state aid in recent years. Europe's big mass market carmakers, outside Germany, are struggling with shrinking demand and overcapacity. Peugeot, which sells more cars than its rivals in Europe, is being hit harder and the move by the French carmaker could open the way for others to cut capacity. It resonated south to Italy where Fiat fell 2.5 per cent to €3.94 in Milan. Sergio Marchionne, Fiat's chief executive, said last week that it would have "one plant too many" in Italy if it was unable to secure concessions from its workforce needed to build cars competitively in its home country for export to the US. In Milan the FTSE MIB fell 0.1 per cent to 13,714.68.