AMSTERDAM/LONDON: European stocks dipped on Monday after staging a sharp recovery late last week, as underwhelming Chinese data and a resurgence of Covid-19 cases in some Asian countries outweighed optimism over the reopening of the British economy.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index slipped 0.1%, adding to last week’s marginal losses spurred by a US inflation scare.
UK’s domestically focussed midcap index was flat, but hovered near a one-week high as the British economy reopened, giving 65 million people a measure of freedom after the gloom of a four-month Covid-19 lockdown. However, there were concerns about a fast-spreading coronavirus variant first identified in India that could knock a full re-opening of the economy off track.
Irish airline Ryanair edged higher despite reporting a record annual after-tax loss, as it said there were signs the recovery had begun.
The wider travel and leisure index fell 1.4% as BNP Paribas downgraded French meal card company Sodexo to “neutral”.
German chemical group Bayer fell 2.1% after a US federal appeals court upheld a $25 million judgment and trial verdict finding that the company’s Roundup caused a California resident’s non-Hodgkin lymphoma.—Reuters
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