ROME: European stocks fell Friday, paring a weekly gain for the region’s benchmark, with shares of luxury makers among those coming under pressure.
The Stoxx Europe 600 SXXP, -0.57% lost 0.4% to 377.35, with health care, consumer goods and telecom shares in the red. But financials, industrials and energy issues logged gains. The move lower was eating into the index’s potential weekly rise of 0.5%. A gain for this week would offset last’s week pullback of 0.5%.
Luxury names within the consumer-goods sector on Friday were hit on the back of an update from Cie. Financière Richemont CFR, -8.26% whose brands include Cartier and Piaget. First-half profit and sales at Richemont, the world’s second-largest luxury group, each missed analyst expectations. Richemont noted that the key Hong Kong and Macau markets were still “extremely difficult,” although it saw growth in mainland China.
Shares of Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group Ltd. UHR, -5.65% fell 5%, France’s LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE MC, -4.47% fell 4.6% and Christian Dior SE CDI, -3.21% lost 3.5%. Britain’s Burberry Group PLC BRBY, -1.81% was off 1.3%.
Weakness in the Chinese economy has been a source of pain throughout the year for luxury-goods makers, as well as for mining shares.
As well, the Bank of England on Thursday flagged concerns that China’s slowdown is rippling through emerging markets, and in turn, hurting growth prospects for the U.K. With the central bank downgrading its forecasts for growth and inflation, the pound GBPUSD, -0.5260% took a beating Thursday and extended losses on Friday. Sterling was buying $1.5162 compared with $1.5215 late Thursday.
On Friday, the FTSE 100 UKX, -0.07% wobbled between small gains and losses, and tilted toward a minor loss for the week.
