European shares flat as Telecom Italia drags eurozone stocks (updated)
20/02/2023 10:29
(For a Reuters live blog on U.S., UK and European stock
markets, click LIVE/ or type LIVE/ in a news window)
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Basic resources, autos lead sectoral advance
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Forvia jumps as it sees stable 2023 sales
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Telecom Italia falls in absence of CDP counter-bid for
grid
(Adds comments, details, updates prices throughout)
By Shreyashi Sanyal
Feb 20 (Reuters) -
European shares were flat on Monday, with the sustained
gains in miners on bets of a demand recovery in China countering
a fall in Telecom Italia that led the decliners in eurozone
stocks.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX was flat after
opening marginally higher.
The basic resources index .SXPP climbed 1.4% after
prices of industrial metals rose on hopes of a recovery in
demand from top consumer China and on support from global mining
supply disruptions.
That also boosted oil prices, lifting European energy stocks
.SXEP by 0.3%.
The EURO STOXX index .STOXXE , which houses major companies
in the eurozone, dipped 0.1%.
Telecom Italia (TIM)
TLIT.MI shares dropped 3% as a government-sponsored offer
rivalling KKR's bid for the former phone monopoly's prized grid
failed to materialise over the weekend.
Global markets were bogged down for much of last week
after hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data added to a
growing pile of evidence that aggressive rate hikes have not yet
cooled prices to the Federal Reserve's satisfaction.
"It seems like a little bit of a of a pause to assess
what's going on and a lack of direction really," said Daniela
Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com.
"We're still not sure about everything that's going on
with the latest data showing that the U.S. economy might not be
slowing as much as we thought. So, people are still trying to
digest what that means."
It was a quiet day of trading in Europe, with U.S. stock
markets shut on Monday for the Presidents' Day holiday.
Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International RBIV.VI fell
nearly 7% after Reuters reported the United States' sanctions
authority launched an inquiry into the lender over its business
related to Russia.
Forvia, the European car parts maker born from Faurecia's
EPED.PA takeover of Hella HLE.DE , forecast stable 2023
sales, sending Faurecia nearly 4.0% higher to the top of the
STOXX 600.
The European autos and auto parts sector index .SXAP rose
0.6%.
(Reporting by Shreyashi Sanyal in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio
D'Souza and Dhanya Ann Thoppil)
((Shreyashi.Sanyal@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 8780; +91 961
144 3740; Twitter: https://twitter.com/s_shreyashi;))