BLBG: European Stocks Pare Gains as Bank Shares Decline
(Bloomberg) -- European stocks were little changed as a decline in banks offset gains in Roche Holding AG.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was virtually unchanged at 391.27 at 11:47 a.m. in London, having risen as much as 0.3 percent.
Banks were the biggest drag on the benchmark measure, with Barclays Plc falling 3.3 percent after setting aside an extra 750 million pounds ($1.2 billion) for the settlement of a currency-manipulation probe. Roche advanced 1.1 percent for the biggest contributor to gains on the Stoxx 600 after confirming its full-year sales and profit forecasts.
The Stoxx 600 has rallied 14 percent in 2015, its best-ever start to a year, as Greece reached a bailout deal and the European Central Bank announced quantitative easing. ECB president Mario Draghi may present details of the plan at a Governing Council meeting in Nicosia on Thursday. Investors are also awaiting the ECB’s first growth and inflation forecasts for 2017 unveiled that day, for clues on the duration of QE.
“This week is very much about the ECB and the jobs report,” said Witold Bahrke, an asset-allocation strategist at Nomura International Plc in London. “We had a very strong run in the recent week. It’s only natural that people will step a bit more into the sidelines, especially when you’re heading into these big events at the end of the week when we could see larger moves.”
A release on Friday may show U.S. payrolls advanced by 235,000 last month, following a 257,000 increase in February, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
Vivendi Stake
Among other stocks moving on corporate news, Vivendi gained 3.2 percent after Bollore Group boosted its holding of the French media company.
Banco BPI SA surged 8.4 percent after Expresso reported that Isabel dos Santos, the second-biggest shareholder, wants the lender to start merger talks with Banco Comercial Portugues SA. BCP rallied 5.6 percent. Spain’s CaixaBank SA has offered 1.1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) to buy out investors of BPI. Portugal’s PSI 20 Index added 0.8 percent for the second-best performance among western European markets. Greece’s ASE rose 1.1 percent for the biggest gain.
Paddy Power Plc jumped 8.8 percent to a record after saying it plans to return 8 euros a share to investors. The betting company also posted annual sales and operating profit that beat estimates.
Glencore Plc lost 1.9 percent after saying saying supply of iron ore, oil and food commodities is likely to exceed demand this year, stoking concern about a price drop. Deutsche Telekom AG declined 2 percent after its chief executive officer called for a drastic reduction in the number of landline and wireless network providers in Europe to improve cost structure.
To contact the reporters on this story: Roxana Zega in Zurich at rzega@bloomberg.net; Namitha Jagadeesh in London at njagadeesh@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Cecile Vannucci at cvannucci1@bloomberg.net Namitha Jagadeesh
