PARIS / LONDON (dpa-AFX) – The stock markets in Europe remain weak. The leading eurozone index, the EuroStoxx 50 (EURO STOXX 50), continued its recent descent for the third day on Thursday and lost 0.72 percent to 3541.79 points. Initial gains didn’t last. The US stock exchanges did not provide any positive impetus either.
The French CAC 40 dropped even more by 1.04 percent to 6157.84 points. Outside the euro area, the UK FTSE 100 stood out. It went out of the market with just a plus. Its rise of 0.07 percent to 7282.07 points has been linked to rising prices in the important banking sector.
“Buying mood definitely looks different,” stated market expert Andreas Lipkow succinctly with a view to the overall market. Fears of inflation and concerns about the economy continued to weigh on the international stock exchanges. Numerous US economic data gave investors no reason to buy with an overall mixed picture.
Bank stocks rose not only in Great Britain, their sub-index was also at the top of the European sector table with a rise of 1.7 percent. Market observers pointed to rising market interest rates as a driver, since banks can benefit from this in the lending business, for example. With the Banco Santander and ING (ING Group), two credit institutions were at the top of the EuroStoxx with increases of around 3.5 percent. ING was also helped by an upgrade by US bank Morgan Stanley.
Moderate price gains of around half a percent were otherwise only seen in the travel and leisure sectors and in the insurance sector, which is also benefiting from rising market interest rates.
In the pharmaceutical space, it was a talking point that Credit Suisse was realigning its priorities in the industry. Among other things, Roche was upgraded, while Novartis was downgraded. This resulted in a 1.8 percent gain for Roche but a 0.4 percent discount for Novartis. Novartis has also been targeted by the Swiss Competition Commission in a patent matter.
Luxury goods values in particular gathered among the big EuroStoxx losers: LVMH (LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton), EssilorLuxottica, Kering and Hermes lost between 2.0 and 3.9 percent in value.
The retail stocks, which were still strong the day before, also looked less good. The clothing chain Hennes & Mauritz (HennesMauritz AB (HM, H&M)) had reported sales figures for the third fiscal quarter that were surprisingly weak. The Swedes’ share fell by 4.7 percent./tih/jha/