Oil sector lower in Europe on price declines

Declines in the oil and automobile manufacturing sectors sent the FTSE Eurofirst 300 0.3 percent lower on Monday to 1,445.8. Carmakers were lower on profit taking, while oil stocks dropped on falling crude oil prices.

In the automobile manufacturing sector, BMW dropped 1.2 percent to €44.64 and Fiat declined 1.3 percent to €13.68. Peugeot was 1.5 percent lower to €44.33 after it cut full-year estimates after reports showed sales down in the first nine months of the year. Volkswagen fell 1.7 percent to €77.40 on mixed reviews from brokers. West LB reduced its recommendation from “hold” to “reduce”, but Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Deutsche Bank all raised VW’s target share price.

Declining oil prices sent Spanish company Cepsa down 1.3 percent to €60.90. Statoil was 2.2 percent lower to NKr165.25 even though it exceeded expectations in its third quarter report on previously high prices for crude. Neste Oil dropped 2.3 percent to €24.81, while Norsk Hydro’s lower than anticipated report on third-quarter profit sent its shares 2.8 percent lower to NKr148.75.

Elsewhere, banks were also lower on the session. Erste Bank of Austria did better than the rest of the sector, losing only 0.2 percent to €53.80 on a report of net profits up by 16 percent in the third quarter, which was just lower than had been expected. Trading income was down by 22 percent. ABN Amro also dropped 0.2 percent, to €22.95, after it said its net profit dropped by 5.6 percent in the quarter. Raiffeisen International dropped 0.7 percent to €89.60.

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