European Markets Trim Weekly Advance on Oil Jitters

Lucy Stoeva
15 Apr, 2016
New York City

European markets trimmed weekly gains as investors were cautious ahead of the Doha meeting of oil producers. Greece outperformed, led by the bank shares after the latest decision from the ECB. Credit Suisse faces fines in Japan for leaking private information.

[R]4:00 PM Frankfurt, Germany - European markets trimmed weekly gains as investors were cautious ahead of the Doha meeting of oil producers. Greece outperformed, led by the bank shares after the latest decision from the ECB. Credit Suisse faces fines in Japan for leaking private information.[/R]

European stock markets plunged in negative territory on Friday as investors were cautious ahead of the meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers on Sunday in Qatar, where a possible output freeze will be discussed.

Despite the decline, major markets ended the week with solid gains after a strong rally earlier in the week, fueled by better-than-expected March export data in China.

Oil prices declined, with Brent crude oil futures down 3.44% to $42.33 per barrel and WTI crude oil futures losing 3.35% to $40.11.

It is still unclear who will represent Iran in Doha and whether Saudi Arabia would agree to a deal without Iran. In addition, the International Energy Agency said yesterday that a possible deal wouldn’t significantly impact the global supply-demand balance.

In Oslo, Seadrill tumbled 9.6% and Statoil lost 1.4% in Oslo, while in London, Tullow Oil dropped 6.8% and BP fell 1.1%.

In China, the gross domestic product jumped 6.7% in the first-quarter from a year earlier, in-line with expectations. The data, however, represents the slowest pace of growth since 2009.

In Greece, the Athens Stock Exchange General Index soared 4.9% to 574.73, led by banks after the latest decision of the European Central Bank.

Today the ECB decided to include European Financial Stability Facility notes in the eligible securities for its asset purchase program.

In London, the FTSE 100 index fell 19.62, or 0.31%, to 6,345.48, while in Frankfurt, the DAX index declined 32.92, or 0.33%, to 10,060.73.

In Paris, the CAC 40 index eased down 15.05, or 0.33%, to 4,496.46.

The German and the French indexes recorded gains of more than 5% in the week however, the main U.K. index underperformed with a weekly gain of 2.6%, as the Bank of England decided to leave its main interest rates unchanged at the record low of 0.5%.

Carrefour SA rose 3.8% to €26.11 after the supermarket operator reported strong first-quarter growth in Brazil, Italy, and Spain offsetting the decline in its home French market.

Sales in the quarter ended March 30 declined to €20.1 billion due to lower gasoline prices and the strength of the euro.

Excluding currency, calendar effects and gasoline sales, comparable revenue increased 3.1%, mainly due to strong performance on foreign markets, where revenue jumped 5.3%.

In Asia, sales dropped by 4.9% due to Carrefour’s restructuring in China.

CFO Pierre-Jean Sivignon said operating earnings estimates for the full-year of around €2.5 billion were “reasonable” but remained cautious due to the high volatility of currencies.

Credit Suisse AG fell 0.8% to 14.42 Swiss francs on the news that the bank faces fines in Japan for allegedly leaking private information about a company.

The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) in Tokyo recommended to the Financial Services Agency to penalize the Swiss bank’s brokerage unit for violating Japanese laws on financial instruments and exchange.

Faurecia SA plunged 3.5% to €33.62 after the French car parts maker reported a 2% sales decline in China for the latest quarter. The lack of any sales guidance also disappointed investors.

Man Group Plc surged 7.5% to 162.9 pence after the U.K.-based hedge fund manager reported growth in client inflows in the first-quarter.

The asset manager posted fund inflows of $500 million in the first-quarter, compared to $1.3 billion of net outflows in a year earlier. The growth was mainly due to computer-driven hedge funds, such as its flagship fund AHL Diversified.

Man Group’s overall assets under management fell to $78.6 billion from $78.7 billion at the end of last year.