Stocks fall due to weak German sentiment and further oil decline

Global equity markets slipped yesterday, hit by weak German business sentiment and another decline in oil, while Brazil slumped after incumbent Dilma Rousseff narrowly won a second term over an opponent seen as more pro-business.

Most euro-zone banking stocks ended the session in negative territory, trimming lofty gains made in the run-up to the results of the ECB review.

DUBLIN

Overall the Dublin market was weaker yesterday, with the Iseq index of Irish shares ending the day flat at 4,660.

There was a bit of volume in Bank of Ireland shares, given the stress tests, with around 50 million shares traded. The stock had opened up higher, but drifted through the day to end 2.2 per cent down at 30 cent. AIB ended the day unchanged at 11 cent.

C&C was up 4.5 per cent at €3.68 after recovering some lost ground from Friday. Around five million shares were traded and the stock stood out in an Irish market context, according to one analyst.

Ryanair, which is due to report results next week, climbed 1 per cent to €7.37. Paddy Power was also up, rising 1.1 per cent to €56.85.

LONDON

Britain’s top equity index fell yesterday, weighed down by financials after Lloyds only narrowly passed a regulatory health check of Europe’s banks. Lloyds was among the worst-performing FTSE 100 stock in percentage terms, falling 1.8 per cent. It was one of the most heavily traded stocks on the FTSE 100 relative to its average.

Aggreko fell 2.4 per cent, which was attributed to a profit warning by fellow emergency-power supplier APR Energy.

The FTSE 100 index fell 0.4 per cent to 6,377.46 points, after managing a slight rebound last week from 15-month lows touched earlier in October.

EUROPE

A slide in Italy’s lenders sent European stocks lower, as investors weighed stress-test results and central-bank stimulus measures.

With its 22 per cent slump, Monte dei Paschi fell the most in the Stoxx 600. The Italian lender is among the 25 banks that failed the ECB’s health check, and said it hired UBS and Citigroup to explore all strategic options.

Banca Carige, the other Italian lender that needs additional funds, lost 17 per cent.

Some of the biggest Stoxx 600 gainers yesterday were also lenders. Austria’s Erste Group Bank rallied 3.5 per cent to €19.56, as Raiffeisen Bank International climbed 2.1 per cent to €17.35.

Meanwhile, TNT Express lost 6.8 per cent to €4.50 and Air France-KLM fell 3 per cent to €6.56.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.6 per cent to 325.1 at the close of trading in London. Germany’s DAX index declined 1 per cent and France’s CAC 40 lost 0.8 per cent.

US

US stocks retreated, following the biggest weekly rally since January 2013, as energy producers led losses after oil dipped below $80 a barrel.

Halliburton, Newfield Exploration and Nabors Industries fell more than 5.5 per cent in early trading to lead losses in energy companies.

Merck slid 2.8 per cent after cutting the top end of its sales forecast. The second-biggest US drugmaker said net income in the third quarter fell to $895 million, or 31 cents a share, from $1.12 billion, or 38 cents, a year earlier.

Sarepta Therapeutics plunged 36 per cent after saying regulators required more data on a new drug proposal.

The Standard and Poor 500 index slipped 0.3 per cent to 1,958.51 at 12:47pm in New York. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 32.65 points at 16,772.76. – (Additional reporting: Bloomberg, Reuters)