EBay shares fall on UK auction listings drop

A screenshot of eBay.com, taken on April 21, 2008.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Shares of eBay Inc (EBAY.O) fell as much as 4 percent after the company saw a sharp decline in new auction listings in Britain, its third-largest market, Deutsche Bank said in research note on Monday.

Deutsche Bank analyst Jeetil Patel, who advises investors sell off eBay holdings, said weekly data for the third week of April provided by the company showed UK auction listings dropping 9 percent from a week before. By the same measure, the listing of UK merchandise was down 19 percent from a year ago.

Shares of eBay traded down 3.8 percent, or $1.20, to $30.51 in afternoon trading on Nasdaq. Including Monday's decline, the stock is down around 1 percent so far in year-to-date trading.

Growth in new auction listings was flat, week over week, in Germany, eBay's second largest market, and up 1 percent week-to-week in its top market, the United States, despite stepped up sales promotions activity, Patel noted.

Patel argues that eBay's better-than-expected first-quarter results reported last week were driven by currency translation gains and non-auction-related businesses such as PayPal, eBay's online payments service.

(Reporting by Eric Auchard; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)