Financials and Danone help European shares edge higher, commodities weigh (updated)
15/08/2017 09:59
* STOXX 600 up 0.1 pct, blue chips gain 0.3 pct
* Danone boosted by activist stake
* Standard Life Aberdeen rises after upgrade
* Schibsted drops following Facebook marketplace news
* Commodity-related stocks weigh
(Adds detail, updates prices)
By Kit Rees
LONDON, Aug 15 (Reuters) - European shares rose modestly on
Tuesday, recovering further ground as geopolitical tensions
eased in holiday-thinned trading, though falls among
commodity-related stocks capped gains.
The pan-European STOXX 600 .STOXX index was up 0.1
percent, weighed by a drop in the basic resources .SXPP and
energy .SXEP sectors after oil prices gave up earlier gains.
O/R
European blue chips .STOXX50E gained 0.3 percent, however,
as did Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE , while Germany's DAX .GDAXI
ticked 0.2 percent higher. Italian and Austrian markets were
closed for a holiday.
Health stocks and financials were the biggest contributors
to gains, with banks .SX7P trading roughly flat. The sector
was hit particularly hard in the latter part of last week as
tensions rose between the United States and North Korea.
Danone DANO.PA led the food and beverage index .SX3P
higher, up 1.6 percent after a media report that the activist
fund Corvex Management owned a stake in the French yoghurt
maker. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1L1150
Insurer and asset manager Standard Life Aberdeen SLA.L was
among the biggest gainers, rising more than 2 percent following
a supportive note from broker Barclays, which raised its rating
on the firm to "overweight", citing synergies from its
acquisition of Aberdeen Asset Management. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1L11F3
"Deal synergies at £200m appear attractive and there is
evidence to suggest that previous headwinds of outflows at GARS
and global emerging markets (GEM) at Aberdeen are receding,"
analysts at Barclays said in a note, referring to Standard
Life's flagship Global Absolute Return Strategies Fund (GARS).
Elsewhere, Norwegian consumer publishing firm Schibsted
SBSTA.OL was the biggest faller, dropping 6.4 percent after
Facebook FB.O announced new marketplace services, while
retailer Next's NXT.L shares fell 3.7 percent after Berenberg
cut its rating on the stock to "sell" from "hold". urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1L11J0
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1L11DQ
Earnings also spurred some moves, with fund supermarket
Hargreaves Lansdown HRGV.L falling 2.1 percent after reporting
its full-year results. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nASM000DWA
German potash miner K+S SDFGn.DE fell 5 percent after
saying that it was unlikely to reach its 2020 earnings EBITDA
target, blaming a slow recovery of potash prices. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N1L119L
Analysts at UBS said that while K+S' second-quarter results
were broadly in-line on depressed levels, the guidance was
"uninspiring".
The European second-quarter earnings season is rolling to a
close with 82 percent of MSCI Europe firms having already
reported earnings, according to Thomson Reuters data.
More than 60 percent have either met or beaten analysts'
expectations.
"It's been a robust earnings season, however it hasn't been
one that we feel justifies the high valuation of some of the
European equity indices at this point in time," Jonathan Roy,
advisory investment manager at Charles Hanover Investments,
said, adding that for this reason trading is starting to be
subdued in some of the indexes, such as Germany's DAX.
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(Reporting by Kit Rees; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
((kit.rees@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 2784;))
Keywords: EUROPE STOCKS/