Shoppers pass a L’Oreal counter inside the Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris. L’Oreal shares rose 1.08% to €122 yesterday, after it confirmed its full-year targets late on Monday, despite a 2.2% fall in sales in the first quarter.
Europe’s main stock markets ended sharply lower yesterday as the escalating military crisis in Ukraine spooked investors.
London’s FTSE 100 ended down 0.64% compared to Monday’s closing level, at 6,541.61 points.
In Paris, the CAC-40 fell 0.89% to close on 4,345.35 points.
Germany’s DAX 30 was the hardest hit, tumbling 1.77% to finish the day at 9,173.71 points, as investors worried about the impact of the Ukraine crisis on Europe’s largest economy.
Germany imports about one-third of its oil and gas from Russia and is Russia’s leading trade partner in Europe — its third largest worldwide.
Investor sentiment in the EU’s biggest economy fell to an eight-month low in April, the ZEW economic institute survey said.
European indices were also held down by mixed corporate earnings updates.
Brewing giant SAB Miller, listed in London, closed down 2.29% as it said currency fluctuations and sluggish alcohol sales in Europe dragged down its annual results.
Nestle, the world’s biggest food company, closed down 0.15% at 66.85 Swiss francs in Switzerland after it said sales plunged 5.1% in the first quarter.
In Paris, shares in the world’s biggest cosmetics group, L’Oreal, rose 1.08% to €122, after it confirmed its full-year targets late on Monday despite a 2.2% fall in sales in the first quarter.
Ukraine concerns also weighed on Wall Street, which turned red after starting the day higher following solid earnings reports from Dow members Johnson & Johnson and Coca-Cola.
In mid-afternoon trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.53% to 16,086.73.
The broad-based S&P 500 dipped 0.47% to 1,821.94, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index
slumped 1.48% to 3,963.00.
“Positive earnings from Johnson & Johnson and The Coca-Cola Company gave the Dow and S&P 500 an early lift today but markets rolled over mid-morning,” said Jasper Lawler, a market analyst at CMC Markets.
Investors would now be watching earnings from Intel and Yahoo “and other growth stocks” after a recent rout on technology companies, he added.
The British pound was mixed as official data showed that 12-month inflation slowed to 1.6% in March, the lowest for four and a half years. That compared with 1.7% in February.
The European single currency fell to 82.57 British pence from 82.61 pence on Monday, while the pound fell to $1.6720 from $1.6726.
The euro fell to $1.3805 from $1.3820 late on Monday in New York. The dollar eased to 101.61 yen from 101.82.
On the London Bullion Market, the price of gold decreased to $1,298 an ounce from $1,325.75 on Monday.
