European and Apple shares continue to drop amid Brexit and production fears

European shares fell for the fourth straight session on Monday amid lingering concerns over Brexit and as Apple shares fell into a bear market on Wall Street on reports that the technology giant has reduced its iPhone production orders.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index ended the day down 0.7 per cent, reversing earlier gains.

Dublin

The Iseq index fell by 1.4 per cent to a fresh two-year low of 5,900, with Brexit-sensitive stocks like Origin Enterprises, off 4.2 per cent at €5.75, Dalata Hotel Group, down 3.6 per cent at €4.82, and Irish Continental Group, which lost 2.2 per cent to €4.50, among the worst performers.

Malin Corp declined by 12 per cent to €4.40, handing some of the gains from its recent rally, with followers of the life sciences investment company unexcited by news that Immunicore, in which it has a 10 per cent stake, has entered a partnership with a Roche company to codevelop-develop a potential cancer treatment.

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Bucking the trend, Cairn Homes added 0.5 per cent to €1.33, as investor presentations by the builder to analysts over the weekend renewed interest in the stock.

C&C gained 0.8 per cent to €3.26. Cantor Fitzgerald published a bullish note on the stock, saying it had upside potential of about 18 per cent.

London

UK shares eased slightly but outperformed Europe as relative calm returned after last week's tumult and Prime Minister Theresa May continued to fight for support for her Brexit deal. The FTSE 100 fell 0.2 per cent.

Banking and retail stocks recovered some of the ground lost during last week’s sell-off, with Lloyds Bank up 2.4 per cent and Kingfisher up 0.9 per cent.

Miners also provided support. But the gains were more than offset by a slump in energy shares as the session drew to a close, as several investors remained cautious over the outlook for Brexit.

Housebuilders continued to get bulldozed after data from real estate website RightMove showed UK house prices in October fell year on year for the first time since 2011.

Barratt Development and Persimmon were down 2.2 per cent and 1 per cent respectively.

Europe

Renault was the top faller on the STOXX 600 after its chief executive Carlos Ghosn, who is also chairman of the car maker's Japanese partner Nissan, was arrested in Japan on allegations of under-reporting his salary.

The dramatic fall for one of the best-known figures in the global car industry raised questions among investors about the future of the alliance, sending Renault shares down 9.4 per cent to their lowest level since October 2014. Nissan’s American depositary receipts tumbled in New York.

Tech stocks were also out of sorts, with the sector hit by a slide in Apple shares on concerns about iPhone demand.

A report by the Wall Street Journal said Apple had cut production orders in recent weeks for all three iPhone models launched in September.

Telecom Italia shares climbed 3.9 per cent after Italy's biggest telecoms company appointed Luigi Gubitosi as its new CEO, fuelling talk of a possible sale of its fixed-line network.

New York

US stocks were lower in early afternoon trading, with the largest technology companies leading the way down, as investor pessimism about escalating trade tensions between the Trump Administration and China added to concerns about new regulation coming for the industry to send the shares tumbling.

Apple, the world’s most valuable company, dropped on the back of the Wall Street Journal report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 indices each fell 1.3 per cent, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.3 per cent.

Over the weekend, Asia-Pacific leaders failed to agree on a communique for the first time ever at a meeting in Papua New Guinea with US-China trade worries on the forefront.

US vice president Mike Pence said in a blunt speech on Saturday that the US will not back down from its trade dispute with China unless Beijing bows to its demands.

Shares in Boeing and Caterpillar, seen as trade sensitive stocks, dropped.

- Additional reporting, Reuters, Bloomberg