Portfolio

Europe open: Shares fall on Evergrande woes as Nel bucks trend

By Frank Prenesti

Date: Thursday 21 Oct 2021

Europe open: Shares fall on Evergrande woes as Nel bucks trend

(Sharecast News) - European shares opened lower on Thursday as the spectre of China Evergrande's debt mountain resurfaced to spook investors while cost inflation worries continued to hit sentiment.


The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.2% with all regional bourses lower. Asian stocks fell on news about the collapse of a $2.6bn sale at property developer China Evergrande.

Shares in the troubled firm fell more than 12% on Thursday, returning to trade after a a two week suspension. China Evergrande announced in an exchange filing late Wednesday that a deal to sell a 50.1% stake in its property services business to rival developer Hopson had fallen through.

Mining shares also fell on the news on fears a default could hit China's broader economic recovery with Rio Tinto and Anglo American lower.

In other equity news, shares in Norwegian hydrogen producer Nel bucked the trend to top the Stoxx, gaining almost 11% as the company reported record third quarter revenues.

Zur Rose shares fell 6.8% despite the online pharmacy reporting a strong rise in nine-month revenues.

Computer game maker CD Projekt fell 7% after the company said its latest edition of Cyberpunk 2077 would now be released in the first quarter of 2022, while the next-generation version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was scheduled for a release in the second quarter of 2022.



Swiss engineering and tech group ABB fell on lowering its full-year sales forecast after warning of parts shortages.

Shares in Volvo were lower after the vehicle maker beat profit expectations but warned that persisting chip shortages hampered production.

Barclays slipped even as the British bank posted a bumper third-quarter performance.

Unilever rose as the consumer goods giant beat third-quarter sales growth forecasts as it hiked prices to try to offset surging costs.

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