European shares stall as real estate stocks weigh

FRANKFURT: European shares kicked off the week on a dour note, weighed down by declines in real estate stocks, while investors studied speeches from European Central Bank policymakers to assess the future direction of interest rates.

The continent-wide STOXX 600 index closed 0.1% lower at 502.61 points.

Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.5%, outperforming its peers.

The STOXX 600 posted its first four-week losing streak in 2-1/2 years on Friday, hit by disappointing earnings, a jump in Treasury yields and concerns about the impact of US President-elect Donald Trump’s policies.

Rate-sensitive real estate stocks led sectoral declines on Monday, while European tech shares dipped 0.4% ahead of AI bellwether Nvidia’s quarterly results on Wednesday.

Heavy-weight energy shares gained 0.8% in tandem with oil prices that jumped more than 2% on news that output at Norway’s giant Johan Sverdrup oilfield was halted, adding to earlier gains stemming from the Russia-Ukraine war.

Basic Resources was the best-performing sector, gaining 0.6% as copper prices ticked up.

Investors awaited a speech from President Christine Lagarde, due at 1730 GMT. Euro zone consumer price figures for October are due on Tuesday, and November’s flash PMIs on Friday.

“Today was a bit of a dull day. There wasn’t any fresh catalyst to drive trade. The markets are in that wait-and-see mood, are sort of consolidating after last week’s sell-off,” Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index, said.

“The dust has settled on the elections. Attention is starting to turn back to economic data,” she added.

Two top European Central Bank policymakers signalled they were more worried about the damage that expected new US trade tariffs would do to economic growth in the euro zone than any impact on inflation.

The ECB’s Yannis Stournar said a quarter-point rate cut by year-end would be reasonable.

Britain’s Melrose Industries rose 7.6% after the owner of aerospace parts maker GKN Aerospace reported a 7% rise in revenue for the four-month period ended Oct. 31.