Europe close: Automobile, Pharma shares walloped
European stocks finished lower, with Automobile firms walloped by US regulators´ accusation that Fiat cheated in tests on its vehicles' emissions.
AstraZeneca
11,654.00p
17:15 27/09/24
BTG
840.00p
16:30 16/08/19
DJ EURO STOXX 50
5,067.45
23:59 27/09/24
FTSE 100
8,320.76
16:59 27/09/24
FTSE 250
21,240.56
17:09 27/09/24
FTSE 350
4,599.36
17:10 27/09/24
FTSE All-Share
4,555.44
17:04 27/09/24
Novo Nordisk A/S
kr805.50
15:55 27/09/24
Pharmaceuticals & Biotechnology
22,314.18
17:10 27/09/24
Shire Plc
4,690.00p
16:39 08/01/19
UniCredit
€8.88
19:00 04/02/21
Healthcare shares were also under the cosh after Trump bashed the sector in his news conference on Wednesday, but commodities were higher on the back of a falling dollar.
By the close of trading, the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.65%, Germany’s DAX was 1.07% lower and France’s CAC 40 was down 0.51%.
Meanwhile oil prices gained ground, with Brent crude up 1.8% to $56.11.
Joshua Mahony market analyst at IG said: “Markets are still reeling from yesterday’s Trump whirlwind speech, which proved well worth the wait after he kept everyone waiting for the longest period, post-election, that any President elect has done.
“Among the circus of Russian hacking, fake news and alike, the big losers from yesterday’s speech appears to be pharmaceuticals and car makers with Trump expressing the will to bring down drug costs and impose a large border tax on firms moving operations abroad to then sell back into the US.”
Healthcare stocks were among the fallers after President-elect Donald Trump took a swipe at the sector in his press conference on Wednesday, saying they were “getting away with murder” when it comes to drug prices. The Stoxx 600 sub-index for healthcare was down 1.94% while that for Automobiles fell 2.83%.
In currency markets, the the euro gained 0.82% against the US dollar and the pound 0.05%, which helped push commodity prices higher. The Stoxx basic resources index rose 0.59%.
On the data front, Eurozone industrial production rose more than expected in November, according to the latest data from Eurostat.
Industrial production in the 19 countries that share the euro was up 1.5% from October, comfortably surpassing expectations for a 0.5% increase.
Elsewhere, figures showed Germany’s economy grew at the fastest rate since 2011 last year with GDP up 1.9% year on year, up from 1.7% in 2015, beating the government’s forecast of 1.8%.
In individual company news, Italian lender Unicredit slipped as it announced it will book €8.1bn in additional provisions for bad loans as part of its balance sheet clean-up announced in December.
Marks & Spencer rallied as it said third-quarter revenue rose, with investors particularly pleased that its embattled clothing division saw sales growth for the first time in nearly two years.
European drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline, BTG and Shire were weaker on the back of Trump’s comments.
Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk dropped after a US law firm filed a class action lawsuit against it on the grounds that it allegedly reported materially false and misleading earnings and forecasts that were inflated through collusive price fixing of its insulin drugs.
Tesco was weaker despite notching an eighth consecutive quarter of like-for-like growth and its first quarterly market share gain in five years. Over the 13 weeks ended 26 November that made up the third quarter, UK LFL sales rose 1.8% although slowed to 0.7% in the six Christmas weeks to 7 January.
Primark owner Associated British Foods was also in the red despite reporting that group revenue from continuing operations was 10% ahead of the same period last year at constant currency, with good growth delivered by all of its business arms.
As a result of the weakening of sterling in late summer last year, sales from continuing operations at actual exchange rates were strongly ahead with a 22% increase.
On the upside, luxury goods group Richemont surged as it posted an unexpected rise in revenue over the Christmas period thanks to solid demand for luxury jewellery and a watches.