European shares dipped despite a tech rebound, as protests in France continued and weighed on sentiment.
Triggered by rising prices and worsening public services, the protests have soured investor sentiment towards a country already grappling with weak growth and rising debt.
Dublin
The Irish market started on a negative note, ending the opening session of the week in the red. The Euronext Dublin dipped 0.8 per cent to end the day at 14,069, dragged lower by weakness in banking and some construction stocks.
AIB lost 1 per cent over the day, finishing at €10.84, while Bank of Ireland was 2.46 per cent lower at €18.40. Insurer FBD was also off the pace, shedding 0.5 per cent.
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Insulation specialist Kingspan declined by 1.5 per cent, and Cairn fell almost 0.6 per cent. But rival home builder Glenveagh added almost half a per cent over the session, ending the day at €2.34.
Ryanair, meanwhile, was slightly lower at €22.75, a decline of 0.1 per cent.
London
In London, the FTSE 100 Index ended down 117.21 points, 1.1 per cent, at 10,764.69.
Miners were a weak feature after mixed economic data in China and worries over the demand outlook for artificial intelligence (AI).
Anglo American shares fell 4.1 per cent, Glencore lost 3.3 per cent, while Rio Tinto dipped 1.5 per cent. Barclays declined 3.5 per cent.
The Bank of England is examining whether Barclays traders misrepresented illiquid private credit loans to understate their risk after an insider raised concerns, the Financial Times reported on Monday.
On the FTSE 250, Volex fell 12 per cent despite predicting financial 2027 underlying operating profit will be towards the upper end of current market expectations.
The Hampshire-based maker of power and data transmission products, said trading in the half-year ended September 30th was “excellent”, with year-on-year growth in every end-market.
But it cautioned headline year-on-year growth rates have started to “normalise”.
Europe
French equities suffered their worst day in nearly two weeks on Monday, weighing on European shares after rioting erupted in cities across the country over the weekend.
France’s blue-chip CAC 40 index fell 1.1 per cent, while the pan-European STOXX 600 index slipped 0.9 per cent to 639.1 points.
French lenders BNP Paribas, Société Générale and Credit Agricole fell between 2.5 per cent and 3.4 per cent. Retailer Carrefour declined 2.2 per cent and shopping mall operator Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield dropped 2 per cent.
Political uncertainty also came to the fore in Spain, where the equities benchmark fell 1.5 per cent. A snap election scheduled for next month has left investors wary.
Cyclical sectors led declines across Europe, with banks the biggest laggards following a 2.2 per cent decline. Defence stocks also came under pressure, falling 1.5 per cent.
The technology index was the only big index in positive territory, rising 0.7 per cent. Last week, European shares held up better than US peers during a sell-off in AI-linked stocks over concerns about rising debt to fund infrastructure spending.
New York
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite led Wall Street’s gains on Monday as investors returned to AI-related stocks following last week’s bruising sell-off, while declining oil prices lent additional support ahead of key corporate earnings reports.
CoreWeave, which was at the centre of last week’s sell-off after its shares plunged more than 25 per cent on worries over a $50 billion debt load, climbed 3.1 per cent on Monday. Goldman Sachs upgraded the neocloud firm to “buy” from “neutral”, saying the recent sell-off offers a buying opportunity.
Chipmakers Broadcom climbed 3.2 per cent and Micron jumped 5.3 per cent. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose 3.7 per cent, putting it on course to end an eight-day losing streak, its longest run of declines since October 2008.
Amazon.com was up 5.2 per cent after Morgan Stanley named the ecommerce and cloud computing firm as its “top pick”.
By midmorning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 91.03 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 52,093.44. The S&P 500 gained 68.47 points, or 0.89 per cent, to 7,727.91, while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 463.92 points, or 1.78 per cent, to 26,603.96. – Additional reporting by Reuters and Press Association
