European stocks struggle through Monday session

European stocks struggled on Monday after their worst weekly showing since February, hit by a growing number of risks including signs of inflation and elevated bond yields, while tech stocks were in the red on Wall Street.

DUBLIN

The Iseq edged down 0.25 per cent, as losses were contained by a 3 per cent climb for Ryanair, a major constituent of the index.

The airline closed at €17.66 after sentiment towards the travel sector brightened on reports that the UK will open up more countries for quarantine-free travel later this week, and as global airlines projected a sharp reduction in industry losses next year.

Elsewhere, it was a mixed picture, with building materials group CRH down 0.5 per cent at €39.99 and Paddy Power owner Flutter Entertainment ending 1.3 per cent lower at €170.10, but packaging giant Smurfit Kappa advancing 0.45 per cent to €44.55.

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Glanbia declined 2.6 per cent to €170.10, while fellow food group Kerry finished 0.85 per cent lower at €116.35.

LONDON

The blue-chip FTSE 100 index closed 0.2 per cent lower while the mid-cap FTSE 250 fell 1.4 per cent.

Morrisons dropped 3.7 per cent after US private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) won the auction for the British supermarket group, while Tesco and Sainsbury's gained 1.5 per cent and 3.4 per cent, and along with a rally in oil stocks, helped cap losses on the FTSE 100.

BP and Royal Dutch Shell closed up 2.1 per cent and 2.2 per cent respectively, tracking a jump in crude prices, while AstraZeneca rose 0.8 per cent after its breast cancer drug, Enhertu, received a breakthrough therapy designation.

UK telecoms group BT Group fell 4.7 per cent after media reports said Sky was closing in on broadband investment deal with Virgin Media O2.

Aer Lingus and British Airways-owner International Consolidated Airlines Group rose 0.1 per cent.

EUROPE

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell for a third straight session, down 0.5 per cent, holding near 11-week lows hit in last week’s sell-off. In Frankfurt, the Dax shed 0.8 per cent, while the Cac 40 in Paris slipped 0.6 per cent.

A move into the black during the session on a materials stocks rally was outweighed towards close as falls in technology stocks intensified after peers on Wall Street were pressured by an uptick in Treasury yields.

Banks and luxury stocks also lost on fears of a slowdown in global growth, as China, the world’s second largest economy, deals with fresh Covid-19 restrictions, a property sector slowdown and regulatory clampdowns.

French luxury goods makers Kering and LVMH, which draw a major portion of their revenue from China, fell 1.3 per cent and 1.4 per cent respectively.

Swiss-Irish bakery group Aryzta dropped 9.7 per cent in Zurich on a day when it reported a loss of €235.8 million for the year to the end of July, down from €11.09 billion the previous year.

Meanwhile, a survey showed investor morale in the euro zone fell to its lowest level since April in October on dimming economic expectations.

US

Wall Street’s main indexes tumbled on Monday as investors shifted out of technology stocks in the face of rising Treasury yields, while fresh US-China concerns over trade offered another reason for caution.

High-flying companies including Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon. com fell between 2.4 per cent and 5.8 per cent in early trading.

Facebook was also pressured after its app and its photo-sharing platform Instagram suffered a widespread outage.

Shares of Merck & Co added 2.1 per cent, building on gains from Friday after developing an experimental antiviral pill for those most at risk of contracting severe Covid-19.

Tesla rose 1.5 per cent after it reported record electric car deliveries for the third quarter, beating Wall Street estimates. – Additional reporting: Reuters