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Europe close: Stocks retrace early losses as analysts mull latest coronavirus news

By Alexander Bueso

Date: Thursday 13 Feb 2020

Europe close: Stocks retrace early losses as analysts mull latest coronavirus news

(Sharecast News) - Stocks finished mostly in the red after Chinese authorities revised their methodology for reporting coronavirus infections in order to include "suspected cases", leading to a sharp upward revision in the number of infections, but had managed to recoup nearly all of their earlier losses.
The new methodology resulted in an almost 15,000 person increase in the number of reported cases of the virus.

Chris Beauchamp at IG said the change made the charts showing infection rates look "much more worrying [...] putting the gains of the past few days in doubt."

Nonetheless, Beauchamp also noted the resilience in assets such as the Australian dollar and oil futures, which would seem to show that traders weren't panicking.

"We await further details from the WHO before making a firm assessment on this latest data point. However, we wouldn't completely disregard the downward trend that has recently been observed given it was based on a consistent case definition (assuming good data integrity)," said analysts at ShoreCap.

By the end of trading, the pan-European Stoxx 600 had retraced nearly all its losses to finish down just 0.02% at 431.08, while the Dax was 0.03% lower to 13,745.43 and the FTSE Mibtel was above water, edging up 0.02% to 24,892.15.

Shares of Holland's NN Group topped the leaderboard on the Stoxx 600 after posting fourth quarter net income of €329.0m, which was up from -€533.0m in the comparable year ago period, when it incurred in a goodwill impairment charge.

Commerzbank was another big gainer after unveiling plans for further cost-cutting alongside what it described as "stable" operating profits in the fourth quarter and a "significant" increase in its common equity Tier 1 ratio to 13.4%.

Shares of Deutsche Bank continued pushing higher alongside.

Another German issue, Linde, was also higher after outlining its goal of increased profitability, while Telecom Italia benefitted from market chatter surrounding possible M&A moves on its network.

Front month Brent crude oil futures meanwhile had turned around to trade 1.2% higher to $56.42 a barrel on the ICE, despite reports of a Saudi output increase in January which analysts said showed the Kingdom was not willing to go it alone on production curbs.

In economic news, INSEE reported a large and unexpected drop in the ILO unemployment rate for the fourth quarter to 8.1% from 8.6% over the prior three-month stretch (consensus: 8.5%).

Further east, Germany's ministry of finance confirmed that the year-on-year rate of harmonised consumer prices was steady in January at 1.6%.

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