European stocks give up early gains to close lower

European shares gave up early gains to close lower on Friday as a drop in shares of beauty giant L’Oreal weighed, while the benchmark index clocked weekly, monthly and quarterly declines on French political uncertainties.

Dublin

The Irish index of shares fell half a per cent on Friday, closing the week at 9,318. Banking shares were mixed, with Permanent TSB shedding almost 3 per cent, and AIB off 0.24 per cent. The latter was in the news earlier this week after the Government said it would put another 5 per cent block of shares in the lender on the market, bringing its holding to close to 25 per cent.

At the other end of the scale Bank of Ireland saw its shares rise almost 1 per cent before the close of the week.

Food stocks dipped lower too, with Glanbia down 0.5 per cent and Kerry Group falling to €75.65, a decline of 1.24 per cent.

Ryanair was down 0.55 per cent, trading at €16.33, while Irish Continental Group declined 3.5 per cent.

London

London’s FTSE 100 edged lower on Friday to end a muted week of trading, despite revised economic growth figures painting a slightly rosier picture of the UK economy. The index was hovering around zero at the end of the session but closed 15.56 points lower, or 0.19 per cent, at 8,164.12.

High street retailers JD Sports, Marks & Spencer and Burberry were among the biggest fallers of the day. JD Sports fell more than 5.4 per cent after US peer Nike forecast a surprise drop in 2025 revenue.

It was a tough session for MusicMagpie which saw its share price fall by as much as a fifth on Friday. The refurbished technology platform revealed that its loss before tax hit £3 million in the six months to the end of May, and revenues were lower than the previous year.

Shares in bar operator Nightcap plummeted by about 50 per cent after the AIM-listed group said it was going to delist its shares from the London Stock Exchange. It also warned that adjusted earnings would be below market expectations amid a “challenging” trading environment.

Europe

The pan-European STOXX 600 closed 0.2 per cent lower, extending losses to the fourth straight session.

The personal and household goods sector shed 1 per cent, dragged by a 3 per cent fall in French beauty giant L’Oreal after its chief executive gave a lower market growth forecast during a Fireside Chat hosted by JP Morgan.

The benchmark STOXX 600 recorded its first quarterly loss in three, along with a monthly and weekly decline, amid political uncertainties in France following president Emmanuel Macron’s call for a snap election earlier this month.

France’s benchmark CAC 40 index lost 0.7 per cent, ending 8.8 per cent lower for the quarter, underperforming the region’s bourses. The risk premium on French government bonds hit its highest since 2012.

Among stocks Nokia added 1.5 per cent after the Finnish firm agreed to buy Infinera in a deal with an enterprise value of $2.3 billion.

Air France-KLM dropped 4.1 per cent to a record low after Barclays cut the Franco-Dutch airline group to “equal-weight” from “overweight” on political uncertainty.

New York

Wall Street traders sent stocks toward fresh all-time highs as signs of a cool down in inflation reinforced bets the Federal Reserve will be able to start cutting interest rates this year.

Equities extended this year’s rally, with the S&P 500 hitting 5,500 in an advance led by its most-influential group: technology. The Nasdaq 100 briefly surpassed the historic 20,000 mark and is on track for its best month since November. Treasuries lost steam after rising in the immediate aftermath of the data. Swap traders projected almost two rate cuts this year, with a quarter-point reduction fully priced in by November.

Nvidia, which has been on a roller-coaster ride, led gains in megacaps. Nike tumbled almost 20 per cent on a disappointing outlook.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3 per cent as of 11.30am New York time. The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.3 per cent.

– Additional reporting: Reuters, Bloomberg