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European shares clocked weekly losses as a sell-off in technology shares, some downbeat earnings along with falling commodity-linked stocks weighed, ending a tumultuous week marked by a global tech outage on Friday (Jul 19).
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index closed 0.8 per cent lower, slipping to a more than two-week low and logging a weekly decline of more than 2 per cent, its biggest weekly fall so far this year.
Trading in oil, gas, power, stocks, currencies and bonds was on its way back to business as usual after a sweeping global cyber outage hampered operations at financial services firms and banks from London to Singapore, although residual data problems remained.
Italy’s bourse said that its FTSE MIB index was again being updated regularly after its functioning was affected earlier by the global IT outage. It ended down 0.9 per cent.
Travel and leisure shares were among top decliners with a 2.1 per cent fall, driven by a 8.3 per cent fall in Sweden’s Evolution after missing second quarter top-line and earnings expectations.
Miners shed 2.1 per cent on lower commodity prices due to the lack of Chinese stimulus measures, while heavyweight energy shares slipped close to 1 per cent amid lower crude oil prices.
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Tech shares were down 1 per cent on the day and were the worst performing sector this week with a near 9 per cent tumble.
Referring to tech stocks, Michael Field, Morningstar’s European market strategist said that “when valuations get high, the stocks are kind of vulnerable to market sentiment more so than before and it doesn’t take much to move the needle”.
The European benchmark logged its fifth consecutive session of losses as investors grapple with political developments in the US and the possibility of tougher trade rules that led to a rout in technology shares.
Lack of policy direction from the European Central Bank following its decision to hold rates steady earlier in the week also added to investors’ uncertainty.
Among other stocks, Sartorius was down 13.1 per cent after the pharmaceutical equipment supplier cut its full-year guidance.
Ubisoft dropped 14 per cent after the French video game maker posted a smaller-than-expected rise in quarterly net bookings and forecast second-quarter bookings below analysts’ estimates.
Danske Bank, Denmark’s biggest lender, surged 7.7 per cent as it beat second-quarter net profit expectations.
Tomra jumped 13.3 per cent after the Norwegian waste management provider beat estimates on second-quarter results. REUTERS
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