European shares at record high on earnings boost (updated)

Legrand SA

12/02/2026 10:01

Corrects to remove erroneous bullet point eferencing Siemens, adds a bullet on utility stocks.

Schroder rockets on buyout deal with Nuveen

Sanofi down after ousting CEO Hudson

Utilities slide on talk of EU emissions trading changes

By Avinash  P, Johann M Cherian and Ragini Mathur

Feb 12 (Reuters) -
European shares fell on Thursday, erasing earlier gains that pushed markets to record highs, as financial and industrial stocks tumbled and investors digested a flood of corporate earnings.

     The pan-European STOXX 600 index .STOXX finished 0.5% lower at 618.52 points, with most regional benchmarks also reversing course to close in negative territory.

 Financials weighed heavily on the index, with the banking sub-index .SX7P sliding 1.8%. HSBC HSBA.L and Banco Santander SAN.MC each dropped more than 2%, leading the sector's decline.

 Industrial goods and services sub-index .SXNP dropped 1.2% with Dutch payments processor Adyen ADYEN.AS falling 21.9%, marking its steepest one-day fall in over two years, after cautious guidance.

DSV DSV.CO, the world's largest freight forwarder, posted its sharpest decline in roughly six years, sinking 10.5%.

 Meanwhile, the European utilities index .SX6P was down 0.4%, as it tracked a sharp slide in carbon prices
after suggestions
 the EU should intervene in the market, a move that investors fear could squeeze the sector’s earnings.

 "I think utility companies are the obvious targets. It's going to hit margins and it also runs the risk of increasing inflationary pressures if those costs are passed on to the large energy consumers," said Nick Saunders, CEO of trading platform Webull UK.

 LUXURY STOCKS UP

 Luxury stocks .STXLUXP bucked the trend, rising 1.3% as France's Hermès HRMS.PA touched a near one-month high following another quarter of
steady revenue growth
, powered by robust sales in the U.S. and Japan.

     On the M&A front, money manager Schroders  shot up 28.6% after U.S. asset manager Nuveen NIM.N agreed to buy the UK company for 9.9 billion pounds ($13.5 billion), creating a group with combined assets under management of nearly $2.5 trillion.

Despite Thursday's sharp losses, the STOXX 600 remains up 4.4% year-to-date, having navigated headwinds including U.S.-Europe trade tensions over
Greenland
 and recent selloffs in commodities and technology stocks.

 Among other movers, Swedish biopharmaceutical firm Camurus CAMX.ST slumped 24%, marking its biggest daily drop in over eight years, after reporting downbeat fourth-quarter revenue.

French drugmaker Sanofi SASY.PA fell 4.2% after abruptly ousting its CEO, Paul Hudson, underscoring rising pressure from U.S. vaccine headwinds and a stalled turnaround since he took the reins in 2019.

Legrand LEGD.PA shares rose 3% after the French electrical and digital building infrastructure group said strong data-centre demand was helping its expansion, supporting a slight increase in its medium-term profitability targets.

(Reporting by Avinash P, Johann M Cherian and Ragini Mathur in Bengaluru; editing by Harikrishnan Nair and Mark Heinrich)

((Avinash.P@thomsonreuters.com;))