European Equities Head South as Banks, Financial Services Contract
European equity benchmarks were lower on Monday morning with banks and airline operators among the biggest decliners despite economic data showing a jump in the value of exports from Germany in August.
The value of goods exported from Germany, the largest economy in the Eurozone, advanced by 9.8% annually in the month of August, according to data published by the nation’s federal statistics agency Destatis. Germany exported goods to the value of 96.5 billion euros ($107.90 billion) and imported goods to the value of 76.5 billion euros in the month. Compared with July, the value of exports were up by 5.4%.
Also feeding into trading sentiment on Monday was a drop in oil prices . West Texas Intermediate ( WTI ) crude oil futures for delivery in November and Brent crude oil for delivery in December were down by 0.6% and 0.4%, respectively, at $49.53 per barrel and $51.69 per barrel, respectively, at the time of writing. The morning’s slide comes after both Brent and WTI posted gains in the prior two weeks following an agreement between members of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to lower oil output growth.
In equities, banks were among the biggest decliners on London’s FTSE 100 Index, with Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland down by 3.0%, 3.0% and 2.8%, respectively, while low-cost airline EasyJet was 2.7% lower.
On Frankfurt’s DAX, Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank were 3.8% and 2.6% lower, respectively, while airline operator Deutsche Lufthansa was down by 2.0% and electricity distribution company RWE was 1.2% lower. And, on Paris’ CAC-40, financial services providers Societe Generale and Credit Agricole, were down by 1.7% and 1.4%, respectively, while Air Liquide, a provider of gases and technologies, and hotel operator Accor were both 1.3% lower.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 Index was 0.39% lower, London’s FTSE 100 Index was down by 0.04%, Frankfurt’s DAX was 0.18% lower and Paris’ CAC-40 was down by 0.34% at the time of writing.
