European shares ended subdued on Monday, with higher bond yields weighing slightly on the main index, as the week began on a cautious note with investors looking ahead to the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting.
Dublin
The Irish index of shares started the week in positive territory, showing marginal gains as banking and leisure shares buoyed the market.
AIB and Bank of Ireland gained 1.4 per cent and 1 per cent respectively on the opening session of the week. Permanent TSB was down 3.3 per cent to €2.95. Ryanair rose 1.2 per cent, closing at €28.29.
At the other end of the market, food groups Kerry and Glanbia saw their shares dip, with Kerry Group down 2.8 per cent while Glanbia lost almost 1 per cent.
RM Block
Construction stocks also put in a poor performance, with home builders Glenveagh and Cairn both shedding value, while insulation specialist Kingspan was down 0.4 per cent by the close of the day.
London
The blue-chip FTSE 100 closed the session down 0.2 per cent, having traded in a tight range over the past few days. The FTSE 250 index dipped 0.7 per cent.
British housing stocks were among the worst hit on the day, driving their own FTSE 350 index more than three per cent lower. Shares of Barratt Redrow fell two per cent after Citigroup cut the housebuilder’s target price to 506 pence from 530 pence.
Unilever dipped two per cent after Magnum Ice Cream Company kicked off Amsterdam trading as it finalised a long-awaited spin-off from the global packaged goods maker.
Meanwhile, an industry report showed Britain’s jobs market remained weak last month in the run-up to finance minister Rachel Reeves’ budget on November 26th as employers worried about possible new tax increases.
Europe
The pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.1 per cent at 578.38 points at close.
Real estate stocks were the biggest drag on the main STOXX index, down 1.6 per cent, pressured by a spike in long-dated government bond yields across the globe amid concerns about fiscal sustainability.
L’Oreal fell two per cent after the French company said it will double its stake in Swiss skincare firm Galderma to 20 per cent. Galderma shares were up 1 per cent.
On the flip side, industrials advanced 0.6 per cent, led by defence firms. Rheinmetall added 3.6 per cent, while the broader index climbed 1.6 per cent to lead sectoral gains.
The sector has been sensitive to headlines on progress on the Russia-Ukraine war. It logged steep declines in November as a ceasefire looked imminent, but recouped some ground as uncertainty set in.
New York
Wall Street’s main indexes slipped on Monday, as Treasury yields gained and investors trod cautiously ahead of what could be one of the most divisive Federal Reserve monetary policy decisions in years.
Meanwhile, a hostile bid from Paramount Skydance worth $108.4 billion for Warner Bros Discovery, in a last-ditch effort to outbid Netflix, sent shares of the iconic Hollywood studio company up 4.8 per cent.
Paramount’s shares were up 7.6 per cent, while Netflix’s fell 4.6 per cent.
In morning trading the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 165.88 points, or 0.35 per cent, to 47,789.11, the S&P 500 lost 22.31 points, or 0.32 per cent, to 6,848.09 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 42.24 points, or 0.18 per cent, to 23,535.38.
Broadcom gained 2.8 per cent after a report said Microsoft is in talks with the company about developing custom chips.
Confluent gained 29 per cent after IBM said it would acquire the data-infrastructure company for about $11 billion. Big Blue gained 1.5 per cent.
Tesla lost 3.5 per cent following Morgan Stanley’s bearish view on the electric-vehicle maker. – Additional reporting: Reuters
