Newsquawk Daily European Equity Opening News - 18th August 2023

18th August 2023

ASIA

Asia-Pac stocks traded mostly lower after the early reprieve from the recent global rout petered out. ASX 200 (+0.1%) was kept afloat but with price action rangebound amid a lack of pertinent catalysts and with gains in real estate and the commodity-related sectors counterbalanced by losses in tech, telecoms and consumer stocks. Nikkei 225 (-0.5%) was choppy and briefly clawed back its opening losses as bargain buying kicked in and following the latest inflation data from Japan which printed in line with expectations. Hang Seng (-1.0%) and Shanghai Comp. (-0.1%) were subdued with pressure seen in tech names and as property concerns lingered after state-owned developers warned of widespread losses, while Evergrande Real Estate Group filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in New York to protect US assets as it works on a restructuring of debts. Participants also await the results of today’s Hang Seng index review, while the losses in the mainland were stemmed after the PBoC’s liquidity efforts resulted in the largest weekly net injection since March.

China Evergrande (3333 HK) - Has reportedly filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy in New York. (Newswires)

SoftBank (9984 JT) - Arm unit reportedly lines up 28 banks for this year's biggest IPO. The Arm IPO is expected to occur next month. (Newswires)

EUROPEAN CLOSES

Bourses: DAX -0.71% at 15,677, FTSE 100 -0.63% at 7,310, CAC 40 -0.94% at 7,192, Euro Stoxx 50 -1.32% at 4,228, IBEX 35 -0.78% at 9,278, FTSE MIB -1.03% at 27,879, SMI -0.96% at 10,887.

Sectors: Energy 0.65%, Healthcare -0.07%, Materials -0.34%, Telecoms -0.38%, Consumer Stpl -0.57%, Utilities -0.89%, Consumer Disc -1.26%, Financials -1.29%, Industrials -1.60%, IT -1.88%

FTSE 100

OTHER UK COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

RS Group (RS1 LN) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS

DAX

OTHER GERMAN COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

CAC

OTHER FRENCH COMPANIES

Spie (SPIE FP) - Signs an agreement for the acquisition of 75.1% of BridgingIT. (Newswires)

BROKER MOVES

PAN EUROPE

Italian Banks - ECB is to write a letter to Italy to object the Italian government's windfall tax on their profits, according to Corriere. (Corriere) As a reminder on Tuesday, it was reported that Italy’s deputy PM is pushing to water down bank windfall tax, according to FT, whereby the levy only applies to incomes of larger lenders that are overseen by the ECB.

BROKER MOVES

Adyen (ADYEN NA) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Berenberg

Adyen (ADYEN NA) reiterated with Overweight at JP Morgan Chase

Glanbia (GLB ID) upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

Prosus (PRX NA) upgraded to Overweight from Equal Weight at Barclays

SMI

Novartis (NOVN SW) - Sandoz spin-off planned to occur on or around October 4th and will be voted on September 15th 2023. (Newswires)

OTHER SWISS COMPANIES

BROKER MOVES

SCANDINAVIA

BROKER MOVES

GN Store Nord (GN DC) reiterated with Overweight at JP Morgan Chase

Veidekke (VEI NO) downgraded to Hold from Buy at DNB Markets

US

CLOSES: SPX -0.77% at 4,370, NDX -1.08% at 14,715, DIA -0.84% at 34,474, RUT -1.15% at 1,850.

SECTORS: Consumer Discretionary -1.58%, Consumer Staples -1.01%, Technology -0.96%, Industrials -0.84%, Health -0.76%, Real Estate -0.74%, Communication Services -0.59%, Financials -0.5%, Utilities -0.33%, Materials -0.18%, Energy +1.11%.

Applied Materials Inc (AMAT) - Q3 2023 (USD): Adj. EPS 1.90 (exp. 1.74), Revenue 6.43bln (exp. 6.16bln). Sees Q4 Adj. EPS USD 1.82-2.18 (exp. 1.61). Sees Q4 rev. USD 6.11bln-6.91bln (exp. 5.87bln). (Newswires) Co. shares are up by 2.4% after-market.

CVS (CVS) - Affirms FY adj. EPS outlook of USD 8.50-8.70; financial impact with partial termination of Blue Shield contract expects to have immaterial impact on longer-term outlook. This comes after health insurer Blue Shield plans to drop CVS Caremark (CVS) as pharmacy-benefit manager. (Newswires)

18 Aug 2023 - 06:42- EquitiesResearch Sheet- Source: Newsquawk