Pharma giant Sanofi’s takeover of rival dominates European markets

Numbers from chip-maker AMS and pharma giant Sanofi’s takeover of rival Abylynx dominated European markets at the start of that will see many companies reporting results.

DUBLIN

Traders reported movement in a number of stocks, but said overall volumes were below average.

Food industry stocks overall were weak. Ingredients and convenience foods specialist Kerry Group fell 1.49 per cent to €85.70. Dairy processor Glanbia dipped 0.79 per cent to €13.85, while Irish-Swiss player Aryzta slid 4.73 per cent at €22.56 and also fell on Switzerland's stock market, where most of its shares are traded.

AIB ticked up ahead of the close to end the day 0.52 per cent ahead at €5.80 after being flat for most of the day.

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Insulation and building materials specialist Kingspan was down 1.55 per cent at €36.86.

LONDON

Irish foods business Greencore fell 3.25 per cent to 202.20 pence sterling after announcing that it intended selling its cakes and desserts business in Hull in the UK to Bright Blue Foods Ltd.

“This sale, together with the announced closure of the desserts facility in Evercreech, marks Greencore’s exit from the UK’s cakes and desserts sector,” the company said in a statement on Monday.

Greencore holds it annual general meeting in Dublin on Tuesday, and is due to issue a trading update ahead of that.

Commodity giants were among the best performers on the FTSE 100, with Glencore up 13.1p at 415p, Rio Tinto up 82p at 4,024.5p, and Anglo American up 21.4p at 1,756p.

Superdry slipped 22p to 1,776p after co-founder Julian Dunkerton offloaded a chunk of shares in the fashion retailer amounting to 1.23 per cent of the group, helping him bag £17.8 million, following 12 months of share price gains.

EUROPE

Irish-Swiss bakery group Aryzta fell 1.62 per cent in Zurich to 26.78 Swiss francs. Analysts at both Investec and Goodbody downgraded the company's stock on Monday. The group issued a profit warning last week, and saw its shares tumble almost 28 per cent through Thursday and Friday.

Austrian micro-chip maker AMS soared 16 per cent after its 2017 revenue doubled and the iPhone component supplier raised its growth forecasts far beyond analyst expectations.

Peers Dialog Semiconductor and STMicro rose 1.5 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively, while Infineon reversed earlier gains, ending down 0.2 per cent.

Sanofi muscled Novo Nordisk out of the way to buy Ablynx, clinching a €3.9 billion deal for the Belgian biotech firm. The French pharma giant's shares fell 0.8 per cent as traders digested the hefty price tag of €45 per share, against Ablynx's closing price of €39 on Friday.

The offer was a 109 per cent premium to Ablynx’s share price prior to Novo Nordisk’s bid on January 8th. Ablynx shares shot up 18.5 per cent.

Shares in Swedish medical technology group Getinge sank 10.5 per cent to the bottom of the STOXX after it reported fourth-quarter profit far below market forecasts, and said 2018 results would be affected by currency transactions.

US

Wall Street's major indices dropped on Monday, easing from record levels last week, weighed down by a slump in Apple after a media report added to concerns about demand for the iPhone X. Apple fell as much as 2.6 per cent in early trading after the Nikkei said the company would halve the production target for its flagship iPhone X this quarter.

AT&T Verizon and Sprint dropped between 1.1 per cent and 1.6 per cent on reports that the US government was planning to build a super-fast 5G wireless network to counter the threat of espionage.

Dr Pepper Snapple Group soared as much as 32.4 per cent to an all-time high after K-cup maker Keurig Green Mountain said it will buy the soda-maker in a deal worth more than $21 billion. – Additional reporting: Reuters