Live Markets: Opening snapshot: Peugeot shines, LVMH weighs on luxury
28/07/2020 08:34
Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters
stocks reporters. You can share your thoughts Joice Alves (joice.alves@thomsonreuters.com) and
Julien Ponthus (julien.ponthus@thomsonreuters.com) in London and Stefano Rebaudo
(stefano.rebaudo@thomsonreuters.com) in Milan.
OPENING SNAPSHOT: PEUGEOT SHINES, LVMH WEIGHS ON LUXURY (0726 GMT)
The mood seems to have gradually improved this morning towards the open with European shares
rising 0.4%.
French car maker Peugeot is definitely this morning's sensation, posting the best
performance of the STOXX 600 with more than 4% jump after sticking to its margin goals. The
positive news has given a boost to the sector, which is rising 0.6%.
The other main market action lies with LVMH, which is losing 3.7% with an underwhelming
trading update which is weighing across the luxury space. Moncler in Milan, which also published
its results, is down 3% and we've also got Christian Dior and Hermes losing 3.3% and 1.5%
respectively.
Another big loser is French airport operator ADP, down 4.7% as it warns of a slow traffic
recovery.
The banking sector is rising 0.3% as market seems to be taking the renewal of the ECB ban on
dividends in its stride. Some results and related writedowns this morning haven't caused much
damage either.
ING is up 0.7% for instance with Italy's UBI Banca surging close to 9% after its main
shareholder accepted Intesa's offer.
Lockdown winner Delivery Hero is up 3% after raising its sales outlook.
Oil and gas and basic materials sectors are also helped by the weaker dollar and the hope of
further U.S. stimulus and are up 0.8% and 0.6%.
(Julien Ponthus)
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ON THE RADAR: DELIVERY HERO, LVMH AND BANKING WRITEDOWNS (0632 GMT)
Q2 headlines are piling up and at the moment in terms of what standing out we got lockdown
champion Delivery Hero raising its guidance for 2020 sales, Peugeot maker PSA holding on to its
margin target, Reckitt Benckiser reporting better-than-expected results and a 300 million euros
writedown from Dutch bank ING.
Spain's Bankia will also set aside 185 million euros to protect its books against the
fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and said Q2 net profit fell 76%.
Still in the industry, Austrian bank BAWAG's pre-tax profit halved in Q2 as it took
precautionary measures to prepare for the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
On a more positive note, Swiss wealth and asset manager Vontobel extended its financial
targets through 2022 after increasing pre-tax profit by 4% in the first six months of 2020.
Important to note for European banks that the ECB has extended its recommendation not to pay
dividends until the end of the year while allowing lenders to eat into their capital and
liquidity buffers to help them cope with the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
A much awaited Q2 statement last night after the close was French luxury group LVMH which
said sales momentum picked up in June and had especially improved in China.
Premarket indications show shares in the group could however take a hit at the open with
Morgan Stanley cutting its target price.
In telco news, it emerged that the Italian government is trying to broker a deal between
former phone monopoly TIM and Open Fiber, which is controlled by utility Enel and state lender
CDP, to merge their fibre assets and create a national champion.
In terms of premarket action, we've got Fuchs Petrolub down 3.5% after the company announced
a 25% decline in profit.
Also France's Alstom ALSO.PA is set to gain EU antitrust approval to buy Bombardier
BBDb.TO rail business, people familiar with the matter said.
Among miners, Rio Tinto said it discovered gold-rich deposits at its Winu project in Western
Australia and indicated the potential for a major new copper and gold mine in the region.
Last but not least, for vegan roll watchers, Britain's Greggs said sales at it
company-managed stores stood at 72% of the 2019 level in the most recent week as trading
recovers from the COVID-19 lockdown.
(Julien Ponthus)
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MORNING CALL: FLAT AHEAD OF ANOTHER EARNINGS BINGE (0532 GMT)
European futures are just slightly up this morning ahead of another big salvo of Q2
earnings.
Asian bourses ended their session in the black but sentiment is shaky with Wall Street
futures just barely in positive territory.
Given there's no clear trend on the market at the moment, today's batch of trading updates
is likely to set the mood while the rise of gold and the slide of the dollar are dominating
themes in financial news.
Britain's decision to impose a two-week quarantine on travellers returning from Spain
yesterday was a also stark reminder that a resurgent pandemic could easily rock the boat of
economic recovery.
(Julien Ponthus)
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