European Stocks Decline as Technology Shares Retreat
European stocks declined from a six-year high as technology shares tumbled following a selloff in America. U.S. stock-index futures and Asian shares fell.
Technology shares lost 1.2 percent, with Iliad SA losing 5.3 percent and Nokia Oyj sliding 2.4 percent. Holcim Ltd. and Lafarge SA advanced more than 4 percent each after agreeing to merge, creating the world’s biggest cement company with more than $40 billion in sales. Altice SA jumped 9.5 percent, while Bouygues SA slumped 6.1 percent after Vivendi SA (VIV) agreed to sell its phone unit SFR to Altice in a deal valued at more than 17 billion euros ($23.3 billion).
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.8 percent to 336.63 at 8:18 a.m. in London. The benchmark gauge rose for a ninth day on April 4, the longest streak since October, amid merger and acquisition activity and as U.S. payrolls and manufacturing data increased optimism that the world’s largest economy is strengthening. Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures slipped 0.3 percent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index dropped 0.5 percent.
In Germany, a report showed that industrial production rose 0.4 percent in February after a revised 0.7 percent gain the previous month. The February increase compares with a 0.3 percent gain economists had forecast in a Bloomberg News survey.
Technology Shares
Iliad lost 5.3 percent to 199 euros, and Nokia fell 2.4 percent to 5.41 euros. A gauge of technology companies posted the biggest decline among 19 industry groups in the Stoxx 600. In the U.S., the Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 2.7 percent on April 4, the most since November 2011, after shares from Google Inc. to Yahoo Inc. plunged as investors sold the bull market’s biggest winners.
Holcim gained 5.7 percent to 84.80 Swiss francs, and Lafarge climbed 4.1 percent to 66.74 euros. Their share-swap will lead to synergies of more than 1.4 billion euros, the companies said. Lafarge Chief Executive Officer Bruno Lafont will lead the merged company, which will be called LafargeHolcim.
Altice jumped 9.5 percent to 33 euros, while Bouygues sank 6.1 percent to 28.96 euros. Cable billionaire Patrick Drahi’s Altice will pay 13.5 billion euros in cash and give Vivendi 20 percent of the company created from a merger of its Numericable Group with SFR. Vivendi will receive an extra 750 million euros if earnings targets are met, the companies said in separate releases. Bouygues had increased its bid for the unit, offering 15.5 billion euros in cash and a 5 percent stake of an entity from combining SFR with Bouygues Telecom.
Source: bloomberg
