Rolls-Royce has endured a week of heavy losses, its share price plunging by a quarter. Yesterday, it lost another 4.3%.
AFP
London
European stock markets were in the red yesterday, as traders reacted to weak eurozone data and lingering concerns over China.
Equities are being weighed down by a slump in commodity prices caused largely by weaker Chinese demand. Additional downward pressure is coming from increased expectations of a long-awaited US rate hike in December.
With oil diving to a two-month low and commodity markets continuing to be buffeted, Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda trading group, said: “It’s worth noting that the market was primed for some form of correction following a good five weeks for investors.”
That correction has been steep for some, amid disappointing company earnings not least for British aircraft engines maker Rolls-Royce and German energy giant E.ON.
The former has endured a week of heavy losses, its share price plunging by a quarter. Yesterday, it lost another 4.3%, having Thursday alone lost 20%.
E.ON shed 1.8% in a German market which saw Volkswagen, mired in a pollution scandal which has seen its shares slide some 40% in the past two months, at least pull back 1.0% amid what was otherwise a broad sea of red.
The small rise was despite sales of cars bearing the VW badge fell 5.3% in October as the affair hit European demand.
Troubled mining giant Glencore has similarly been buffeted amid a sell-off in metals and fears over China. Friday it shed 3.0%, lifting weekly losses to 20%.
The company has lost more than three quarters of its value since listing with much fanfare in London and Hong Kong in May 2011.
At the close, London’s benchmark FTSE 100 index had lost 1.0% across the day session.
In the eurozone, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 index ended off 0.7% and the Paris CAC 40 also ended down 1.0%.
The FTSE and CAC both had ended Thursday’s sessions with losses of almost 2.0%.
Wall Street meanwhile opened lower on lower oil prices and weak retail sales data as the S&P 500 fell below where it began 2015, following the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite into negative territory.
Growth in global demand for crude is meanwhile set to slow next year as the allure of cheap oil fades, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.
Oil has been in oversupply in world markets this year, easily absorbing strong demand from Europe, China and especially India.
Growth in the 19-nation eurozone slowed to 0.3% in the third quarter, official data showed on Friday, with the economy in powerhouse Germany cooling as France returned to expansion.
