European stocks fell on Monday as fears over slowing growth in the US continued to be felt following Friday's lower-than-expected gross domestic product data from the world's largest economy.

In early trade, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 0.6 per cent to 1,440.89, Frankfurt's Xetra Dax fell 0.8 per cent to 6,214.16, the CAC 40 in Paris shed 0.8 per cent to 5,353.72, and London's FTSE 100 lost 0.4 per cent to 6,133.7.

Wall Street fell, following Friday's unexpectedly weak third-quarter GDP numbers from the US. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 0.6 per cent to 12,090.26, while the Nasdaq Composite was 1.2 per cent lower at 2,350.62.

Back in Europe, carmakers were weaker as Volkswagen, the German manufacturer, attracted differing broker views following its forecast-beating results released on Friday.

Sal Oppenheim, downgraded the stock from "buy" to "neutral", saying that despite the better results, it did not see "a major trigger driving the shares to new top levels". WestLB cut its rating on the company from "hold" to "reduce" also doubting the prospect of further positive surprises since there was unlikely to be any short-term return of cash to shareholders.

In spite of target price increases from Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and UBS, VW shares were down 2.9 per cent to EU51.95.

Other stocks in the sector fell. BMW shed 1.8 per cent to EU44.41, while Renault lost 1.3 per cent to 89.70 and Porsche lost 1.6 per cent to EU899.52.

Austria's Erste Bank fell 2.8 per cent to EU52.03 after it reported a 16 per cent rise in third-quarter net profit that fell shy of expectations. Eastern Europe's second-biggest lender said trading income fell 22 per cent, while a one-off charge also weighed.

Raiffeisen International, Erste's main competitor in eastern Europe, fell 2.6 per cent to EU87.90.

  Add comment

Name:
E-Mail:
Comment:
Enter code: