European shares hit a one-week trough on Thursday, led lower by banks, as poor corporate results and fresh signs of deteriorating global economic outlook overshadowed a compromise deal on a massive U.S. stimulus plan.

By 0949 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 1.5 percent to 791.78 points after falling as low as 787.14. The index is down 4.8 percent this year after plunging 45 percent in 2008.

Banks were among the top fallers on the index, with Commerzbank falling 5.4 percent, Credit Agricole down 3.5 percent and Societe Generale declining 3.4 percent.

Energy shares were also under pressure as crude prices eased to trade below $36 a barrel — down 75 percent from a record high near $150 just seven months ago. BP , Royal Dutch Shell , Repsol and Tullow Oil shed between 0.3 and 1.3 percent.

Governments are using “historically strong medicines to try to revive a patient that is looking very weak at the moment and so far almost everything that has been used has failed to work,” said Henk Potts, strategist at Barclays Stockbrokers.

Investors hoped the measures would support in the long term, but there was a lot of nervousness before they saw the results of the U.S. government’s efforts on the economy, he added.

The pessimism over a compromise deal on a $789 billion U.S. package, which helped Wall Street shares to gain overnight, evaporated after investors scrutinised a raft of disappointing corporate results and macroeconomic data.

Figures showed Japanese wholesale prices dropped in the year to January, the first drop in five years, bringing the world’s second-largest economy closer to its second bout of deflation in a decade as the economy slipped deeper into recession.

Earnings results also hurt sentiment.

Swiss engineering group ABB posted an 88 percent fall in fourth-quarter net profit, oil major Total reported an 8 percent drop in profits due to lower oil prices and output, while banking group KBC booked a $3.4 billion loss due to writedowns.

RIO TINTO STAKE

“Asides from the stimulus package, the big news has been the large stake in Rio Tinto (RIO) being sold to Chinalco,” said Andrew Turnbull, senior sales manager at ODL Securities.

“The deal is said to be the largest overseas deal by the Chinese and really does show how desperate for cash Rio Tinto has become,” he said.

Rio Tinto will sell $12.3 billion in asset stakes to Chinalco and raise a further $7.2 billion by issuing China’s top aluminium maker convertible notes to cut debt, the global miner said. Rio shares were up 1.2 percent.

The negative market sentiment spread to other sectors such as mining, electricity, telecommunications and retail.

Miners, struggling due to falling prices and slowing demand of metals, fell again. BHP Billiton , Anglo American (AAL), Xstrata (AXTA) and Antofagasta (ANTO) fell between 0.8 percent and 3.3 percent.

Among electricity companies, Enel dropped 2 percent and Renewable Energy slipped 1.4 percent.

France’s EDF fell 7 percent after it posted a dip in 2008 core earnings, hit by a larger-than-expected 1.2 billion euro ($1.55 billion) charge related to French regulated tariffs.

Britain’s BT Group dropped more than 5 percent after its core earnings slumped 9 percent in the third quarter and pre-tax profits slumped 81 percent.

Among gainers, French carmaker Renault rose 5.9 percent after it dropped its once sacrosanct 2009 profit targets and said it would focus on cutting inventories this year.

Across Europe, the FTSE 100 index, Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40 were down 1.1-1.9 percent.

LONDON, Feb 12 (Reuters)

Several of the EU’s newer member states are currently holding bids for new plants. And having a clean and reliable energy source will spur industrial growth in the region, creating attractive investment opportunities in the process.

More from Sara with the countries most likely to benefit from this new energy drive…

The word nuclear stirs up all kinds of fears nowadays… Everything from Chernobyl to Iran comes to mind, and the fallout is – in my opinion – mostly political. So what does it say when nine countries in central and southeast Europe take up the atom?

We’ve heard that China wants to build 30 new nuclear reactors over the next 15 years, and now news has hit the public that Russia will spend $40 billion to boost its nuclear power sector over the next seven years…

But have you heard that Turkey, long-pressed by an energy shortage, has plans to build three nuclear plants? By September 24, it will close the call for bids to build the first nuclear plant in the country.

Turkey’s not alone either. Albania wants Italy’s Enel (BIT:ENEL)(ENLAY.PK) to build a nuclear plant on its soil. Poland is in the running to build a 3,200 MW facility in neighboring Lithuania.

The list goes on…

There are some interesting names floating around, too. You’ve got your regulars: Areva (EPA:CEI) and Siemens (SI:NYSE). But then you’ve got the Czech Republic’s power group, CEZ (ISIN: CZ0005112300), who’s planning two new units in the country… Germany’s RWE AG (ISIN: DE0007037129), who’s bidding on a plant Bulgaria and another in Romania… Belgium’s Electrabel (ELBSB:Brussells), owned by France’s GDF Suez (EPA:GSZ) is also bidding on the Bulgarian and Romanian plants… and Spain’s Iberdrola (IBE:Madrid) is a candidate for the Romanian plant.

For this region as a whole, cheap and reliable power means greater productivity and industrial growth. It’s the cornerstone of stellar GDP growth, and there will be some nice jumps over the next eight to twelve quarters, particularly for the Czech Republic and Romania. Keep an eye on Turkey and Slovakia as well…

Source: The Eastern Nuclear Bloc

As a rough guide, peak power is three times more expensive than off-peak power… but it varies a lot depending on the region. As things currently stand, power companies figure out the average cost of power each day and charge every customer the same price, regardless of the time of day they consumed the power.

The power company would like to charge you more for using power at peak times… like the toll bridge or the phone company. By charging more for peak usage and less for off-peak usage, consumers would alter their habits. Peak demand would decline and base demand would rise. Power companies could avoid building expensive peak load power plants. Consumers could cut their bills in half. And it would create spare generation capacity for the future…

In Lee County, Florida, you’ll get a 50% discount on the toll bridge if you travel outside daily rush hours. Economists call this variable pricing. When there’s more demand for your service, you charge a higher price. The railroads use it. The airlines use it. Even telephone companies charge separately for peak and off-peak calling.

But there’s one industry that really wants to use variable pricing: the power industry.

Demand for power in the United States peaks daily at 6 p.m. That’s when people get back from work, heat their ovens, run the laundry, and turn on the air conditioning. Power demand bottoms at 4 a.m., when the whole country is asleep.

Because they have no way to store electricity, power plants must always have spare generating capacity to meet peaks in demand. If power demand spikes and the power company can’t keep up, you get a blackout.

To make sure there’s always enough power, power companies run two types of power plants: base load plants and peak load plants.

Base load plants meet the minimum power demand. Nuclear, coal, and hydro power plants are examples. You can’t switch off a reactor, cool a furnace, or stop a river, so base plants run all day and night. These plants produce the cheapest electricity.

As power demand starts rising at 6 a.m., power companies bring on their peak load plants. Peak plants generally run on natural gas so they can be turned on and off easily. These plants are much more expensive to run, so the power companies use them like pinch hitters: They bring them on line only when they need them.

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As a rough guide, peak power is three times more expensive than off-peak power… but it varies a lot depending on the region. As things currently stand, power companies figure out the average cost of power each day and charge every customer the same price, regardless of the time of day they consumed the power.

The power company would like to charge you more for using power at peak times… like the toll bridge or the phone company. By charging more for peak usage and less for off-peak usage, consumers would alter their habits. Peak demand would decline and base demand would rise. Power companies could avoid building expensive peak load power plants. Consumers could cut their bills in half. And it would create spare generation capacity for the future…

According to the North American Reliability Corporation, United States demand for peak electricity will increase by 135 gigawatts over the next decade… But supply will only rise by 77 gigawatts. If these projections are correct, there will be a major shortage of electricity within the next 10 years.

Variable pricing would save everyone money and ease the coming electricity shortage. But how will the power industry implement variable pricing? Smart meters. A smart meter records how much power you use and when you use it.

The world’s largest smart-meter deployment is in Italy, by the power company Enel SpA (ENEL). Enel says the project cost 2.1 billion euros but saves 500 million euros per year… a four-year payback.

Pacific Power and Gas, the California utility, wants to install smart meters with millions of customers in northern California. And a utility in Texas, Oncor, recently signed a $690 million contract to install smart meters in 7 million households.

Echelon (ELON) and Itron (ITRI) are the two smart-meter market leaders… Variable pricing will revolutionize the electricity industry. I’m going to keep a close eye on the companies that make smart meters… and I recommend you do the same.

Source: This Gadget Will Revolutionize Our Power Supply