European shares dipped on Monday with automakers hitting their lowest level this year after anti-trust regulators opened an investigation, while comments from Ryanair as it unveiled quarterly figures prompted concerns the industry faced a price war.
The pan- European STOXX 600 fell 0.2 percent as gains in heavyweight financials helped offset losses in other sectors.
Dublin
The Iseq index of Irish shares lost 0.9 per cent to 6,647,41, marking its third straight session of decline.
Ryanair slid as much as 5.6 per cent during the session as investors looked beyond a robust set of profits for the carrier’s fiscal first quarter to focus on its cautious outlook.
Goodbody Stockbrokers analyst Mark Simpson calculated that the group's guidance that its average fare will fall 5 per cent in the six months to September implies a 8-9 per cent decline in the current quarter, its most important period of the year.
“The read on this is that they see demand weakening substantially and need to stimulate growth through aggressive pricing,” said Mr Simpson. Ryanair shares closed off their lows, down 1.1 per cent at €17.85.
Fellow travel-related stock, Irish Continental Group, was also out of sorts, falling 2.2 per to €5.33, with its woes compounded by as much as a 1.4 per cent slump by sterling against the euro last week.
Banking stocks also mainly closed in negative territory as investors positioned themselves ahead of a slew of first-half results from the sector later this week. Bank of Ireland dropped 1.7 per cent to €6.80, while Permanent TSB slipped 0.7 per cent to €2.45. AIB managed to inch 0.1 per cent higher to €4.815.
Bucking the trend, Independent News & Media rallied 12.8 per cent to 11.5c, recovering some of the ground lost week on foot of a profit warning from the newspaper publisher.
London
Britain's top share index fell on Monday as heavyweight Reckitt Benckiser dropped following its results and as airlines were rattled by Ryanair's outlook.
Britain’s blue-chip FTSE 100 index ended down 1 per cent at 7,377.7 points.
Consumer goods company Reckitt Benckiser fell 3.3 per cent, the biggest FTSE loser, after second-quarter sales fell 2 percent following last month’s cyber attack, which disrupted its operations.
"We consider the quality of these results disappointing for a company like RB, and expect the stock to underperform today particularly given management's commentary around 2017 outlook," analysts at UBS said in a note.
Budget carrier EasyJet lost 2.8 per cent and Aer Lingus's owner IAG fell 0.8 per cent.
Blue chip risers were dominated by more defensive stocks, with pharma firm Shire making modest gains.
Europe
Gemalto dropped 19.7 per cent after the Dutch digital security company on Friday warned on profit for the fourth time since October, citing continued weakness in its SIM-card and US payments operations.
Shares in carmakers fell after EU antitrust regulators said they were investigating allegations of a cartel, with Volkswagen , Peugeot, Daimler, Renault and BMW between 1.3 per cent and 2.8 per cent lower.
This brought the autos index to a seven-month low and made it the day’s worst-performing sector, with a fall of 1.4 percent by the close.
Among leading gainers was B&M European Value Retail, up 4.9 per cent after a report that Asda, the British supermarket arm of US retail giant Wal-Mart, was considering a 4.4 billion pound takeover bid.
New York
The S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were pulled lower by losses in Johnson & Johnson in early afternoon trading on Monday, while the Nasdaq hit a record high ahead of Google parent Alphabet's earnings report.
Johnson & Johnson's shares fell 1.6 per cent after South Korea's Samsung Bioepis said it started US sales of a less expensive alternative version of J&J's rheumatoid arthritis drug Remicade.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.2 per cent, at 21,528.84, while the S&P 500 was lost 0.10 per cent, but the te Nasdaq Composite gained 0.2 per cent.
Halliburton was down 3.8 per cent after the oilfield services provider warned about flattening growth in North American rig count.
