PARIS / LONDON (dpa-AFX) – Most of Europe’s most important stock exchanges went downhill at the beginning of the week. The ongoing Brexit turmoil, the tightening of the corona lockdown and the strong euro against the US dollar weighed on investor sentiment.
The leading Eurozone index EuroStoxx 50 lost 0.26 percent to 3530.08 points, the French Cac 40 fell 0.64 percent to 5573.38 points. Market participants attributed the fact that the London FTSE 100 was quite robust with a plus of 0.08 percent to 6555.39 points because of the falling British pound. UK exporters can benefit from this because it makes their goods more attractively priced outside of their home country.
The attempts by Great Britain and the European Union to finally agree on a trade pact threaten to fail. After the end of the Brexit transition phase at the turn of the year, dramatic economic upheavals are unlikely to be prevented. EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wanted to fathom an agreement at the last minute again. However, both sides continued to complain about fundamental conflicts over the weekend.
In an industry comparison, the recently quite good bank stocks were hit particularly hard, with their sub-index falling by 2.37 percent in the broad-market StoxxEurope 600. Santander sagged at the EuroStoxx end by 4.75 percent. Chemical stocks were, however, in demand, the sector gained 0.87 percent and Linde, the top value in the EuroStoxx, rose by 2.31 percent. The British investment bank Barclays had upgraded the papers of the industrial gas manufacturer from “Equal Weight” to “Overweight”.
The weak pound helped the course of the spirits manufacturer Diageo in London with a plus of one and a half percent. GlaxoSmithKline also grew quite significantly. Analyst David Madden from CMC Markets UK pointed to the relatively high international revenue streams of these groups./ajx/men
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