European equities drop from three-month high

European equities closed lower, dropping from a three-month high, after US factory data raised concern that the world’s largest economy may not be strong enough to withstand higher borrowing costs.

The euro recovered from a multi-month low against the US dollar as investors pared bets that the European Central Bank will soon ease policy further.

DUBLIN

The ISEQ index ended the day flat yesterday at 6,840.46. It was a “relatively quiet start to the last month of the year” according to one analyst.

Dalata was the stand-out stock in terms of volume, with 2.5 million shares traded.

Shares in the hotel group ended the day down 2.9 per cent at €5.

There was decent volume in Bank of Ireland also. The stock finished down 0.5 per cent at 35 cent.

Ryanair closed near flat at €14.19. The airline yesterday said last month's terrorist attacks in France, together with concerns about the possibility of similar incidents in Belgium, haven't significantly hurt bookings.

Applegreen soared 4.9 per cent to €5.80 and was among the best performing shares.

LONDON

Britain’s top share index gained yesterday as the banking sector rose after passing Bank of England stress tests, making up for underperforming European indexes in the previous session.

Financial stocks added nearly 20 points to a 39.56 point advance for the FTSE 100, which was up 0.6 per cent at 6,395.65 by the close.

Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Barclays and Lloyds gained between 1.8 and 4.6 per cent after the results of the latest Bank of England tests.

BHP Billiton rebounded 2 per cent after closing at its lowest price since 2008.

Among fallers in London, Babcock retreated 1.4 per cent after a downgrade to "sell" from Citi.

UK power supplier Drax surged 12.4 per cent after the EU cleared state aid to convert the Lynemouth coal-fired power plant to biomass.

Mining group Petra Diamonds jumped 12.6 per cent after saying it will buy a stake in De Beers Kimberley Mines in South Africa.

EUROPE

European shares fell yesterday, weighed down by a slump in

Linde

after the world’s biggest industrial gases company by sales cut its 2017 profit target.

Linde slumped 14 per cent, the most since 1999, after cutting its earnings targets for the third time in just over a year.

Safran dropped 2.5 per cent after France lowered its stake in the jet engine maker.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index reversed an earlier gain to end the day down 0.3 per cent.

The euro zone’s blue-chip Euro STOXX 50 retreated 0.8 per cent, while Germany’s DAX, which includes Linde as a constituent, dropped 1.1 per cent.

The CAC-40 in France was 0.8 per cent lower.

NEW YORK

Wall Street opened in rally mode and the S&P 500 touched its highest in four weeks before giving back gains after a batch of mixed economic data.

TerraForm Power rose 22.3 per cent to $8.44 in early trading.

This was after hedge fund Appaloosa Management sent a letter to the company saying its move to buy higher-risk projects from the parent company, SunEdison, raises concerns for TerraForm’s stakeholders.

SunEdison was up 6.8 per cent at $3.40.

Joy Global fell 13.9 per cent to $13.22 after Streetinsider.com said Bank of America Merrill Lynch slashed its rating on the stock.

The SandP 500 added 0.6 per cent to 2,093.62 at 11.26am in New York, after rising as much as 0.9 per cent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 114.95 points, or 0.7 per cent, to 17,834.87. The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.5 per cent. Additional reporting: Bloomberg, Reuters