European stocks flat as falling industrials offset rising commodities and banks

European stocks were flat on Monday as falling industrials offset rising commodities and banks.

DUBLIN

Building materials giant and index heavyweight CRH climbed 1.47 per cent to €41.39 on Monday. The bank holiday meant there was no corporate news to spur interest in Irish shares on the day.

Lenders benefitted from expected interest rate hikes. AIB rose 1.02 per cent to €2.368. Bank of Ireland closed 1.72 per cent ahead at €5.31. Permanent TSB advanced 1.32 per cent to €1.54.

Ingredients and convenience-food specialist Kerry rose 2.25 per cent to €96.18.

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Paddy Power and Betfair owner Flutter Entertainment was down 1.18 per cent at €167.80 at the close.

Hotelier Dalata tumbled 3.08 per cent to €3.78. House builder Cairn Homes shed 1.58 per cent to €1.122. Rival Glenveagh dipped 0.54 per cent to €1.104.

Travel software specialist Datalex rose 4.12 per cent to 88.5 cent. Airline Ryanair dipped 0.5 per cent to €16.

Insulation manufacturer Kingspan edged 0.8 per cent up to €96.18 at the close of trade.

LONDON

HSBC Holdings rose 1.9 per cent to 443.05 pence sterling after saying a rebounding post-Covid economy helped third quarter profits rise 74 per cent to £3.9 billion (€4.6 billion).

Rising bond yields, driven by expectations of monetary policy tightening in the US and Britain, benefited bank stocks on Monday.

Miner Rio Tinto rose 2 per cent to 4,766p as commodity stocks gained ground on news of low copper inventories in China and high oil prices.

Anglo American also added 2 per cent to 2,812p on the back of the same news. Glencore rose 1.34 per cent to close at 371.9p.

Mining and energy stocks rose 1.8 per cent and 1 per cent respectively across Europe. London's blue chip FTSE 100 index has the highest representation of these shares.

EUROPE

The pan-European Stoxx 600, which covers leading shares across 18 markets, closed largely unchanged at 472.21 points, with concerns over rising inflation and slowing economic growth also weighing on sentiment.

Aircraft manufacturer Airbus fell 1.5 per cent to €108.08 after rebuffing calls to ease back on plans to step up production of its market leading A320 jets.

Telecom stocks collectively sank 0.9 per cent after Bank of America Global Research reinstated "underperform" ratings on Nokia and Ericsson on low earnings expectations, and signs that the 5G market had peaked.

UniCredit slipped 1.7 per cent to €11.33 after the Italian government and the bank ended talks over the sale of ailing Tuscan bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS). Monte dei Paschi di Siena (MPS) slid 2.4 per cent to €1.05.

Spain's Sabadell rose 2.8 per cent to 67 cent after it said its board had rejected an offer from Co-operative Bank for its British subsidiary TSB.

US

US stock indexes edged higher in choppy trade on Monday, led by gains in Tesla and PayPal shares, while investors geared up for earnings reports from heavyweight technology companies through this week.

Tesla rose 4.5 per cent to a record high after car rental firm Hertz placed an order for 100,000 of its electric autos, while Morgan Stanley boosted its price target on the electric-car maker's stock.

Its shares provided the biggest boost to the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, followed by PayPal, which added 4.9 per cent after the payments company scrapped its plans to buy the digital pinboard site Pinterest for as much as $45 billion. Shares of Pinterest plunged 13.6 per cent.

Facebook, which was due to kick off quarterly results for mega-cap technology giants after markets closed on Monday, fell 0.3 per cent.

Investors fear its ad revenue could face the brunt of Apple's iPhone privacy changes that have also hit Snap Inc's third-quarter revenue. – Additional reporting: Reuters