European Stocks Subdued as US Govt Shutdown Enters Day 3

By Investors Hub

European stocks were subdued on Monday as the U.S. government shutdown entered its third day and investors awaited cues from two major central bank meetings this week.

The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index was marginally lower at 400.90 in late opening deals after rising half a percent on Friday.

The German DAX and France’s CAC 40 index were down about 0.1 percent each while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was little changed with a positive bias.

Sanofi shares tumbled nearly 3 percent after the French drugmaker agreed to buy hemophilia drugmaker Bioverativ Inc. for $11.6bn.

Swiss banking giant UBS dropped 1.7 percent after it reported a 2.22 billion-franc ($2.3 billion) loss for the fourth quarter as a result of a large writedown related to the new U.S. tax overhaul.

Swiss luxury group Richemont lost over 1 percent after it launched an offer to take full control of Yoox Net-a-Porter. Shares of Italian online luxury retailer Yoox Net-a-Porter soared more than 24 percent.

Gambling firms slumped in London after reports that the government is set to limit gambling terminal stakes to two pounds. William Hill slumped 13 percent while Ladbrokes Coral shares fell over 10 percent.

On the positive side, South African retailer Steinhoff jumped almost 9 percent. The company is launching an accelerated bookbuild to place about 29.5 million shares in PSG Group Limited with qualifying institutional investors.

Germany’s Deutsche Telekom rallied 1.6 percent after saying it is confident of hiking dividends in 2018.

British online supermarket Ocado Group soared 13 percent after announcing a partnership with Sobeys to develop an online grocery business in Canada.