Europe close: Stocks little changed at quarter's end
European shares were little changed in the final session of the quarter, albeit following a three-month run that had seen benchmarks in Germany and France advance by nearly 10%.
Denting investor sentiment a bit, Deliveroo's stock market debut failed to deliver for its backers, with the stock down 13% at the close following a nearly 30% drop at one point in the session.
Against that backdrop, the pan-European Stoxx 600 was down 0.24% to 429.6 with the UK’s FTSE 100 underperforming, erasing 0.86% to 6,713.63.
Germany's Dax on the other hand was roughly flat at 15,008.34, while the FTSE Mibtel inched up 0.05% to 24,648.56.
Shares in Deliveroo opened well below the IPO price, and were down as much as a third to 275 pence. Deliveroo was priced at 390.0p per share, valuing the company at £7.6bn. Peers Just Eat Takeaway and Delivery Hero also fell on the lacklustre showing.
Markets.com chief analyst Neil Wilson said that even though the IPO was priced at the bottom of the range, "Deliveroo was demanding too high a price tag for a loss-making delivery platform in a very competitive space with a questionable path to profitability."
"The books were covered, it was just plain mis-priced," he said.
Spreadex analyst Connor Campbell said fund manager worries about Deliveroo's labour practices had contributed to the poor market showing.
"It is maybe a case of a perfectly zeitgeisty company in one sense – Deliveroo is a primary pandemic beneficiary – coming of age in the wrong moment, i.e. in the era of ostensible environmental, social and corporate governance," he said.
"And before asset managers start feeling too angelic, the fact Deliveroo is yet to make a profit, even with the help of the pandemic, is likely also a cause for concern."
In other equity news, Siemens Gamesa topped the Stoxx gainers throughout much of the day, climbing 5.5%, after the company and Repsol closed their first deal for turbines for 120MW of capacity across four wind farms in Spain.
Swedish clothing retailer H&M fell 3.3% after the company reported a quarterly loss and said it would not propose a dividend at its annual general meeting.
Credit Suisse shares fell again on concerns over a possible link to the worries of Archegos Capital, which defaulted on margin calls earlier this week.
Computer games maker CD Projekt fell 13% after a strategy update disappointed investors.