Shares across Europe struggled to acquire gains on Thursday’s session led by the rising political concerns surrounding United States.
Auto stocks also settled lower on the day, Italian carmaker company Fiat Chrysler was one of the leading decliner after the European Commission enacted a legal action on Italy for failing to reply to allegations of issuance test cheating by the automaker. Fiat Chrysler lost as much as 3 percent in shares.
Stocks from the financial sectors in Europe slipped more than 1 percent as it was pulled down by the investments plans of credit management services firm Intrum Justitia’s. On Thursday, the Swedish company submitted a number of spin-offs. This is in a bid to lessen the concerns of the European Commission on its proposed merger with its rival from Norway Lindorff. Intrum Justitia was 11 percent down in its shares.
British luxury fashion house Burberry dropped as much as 21 percent in its pre-tax profit for this year also on Thursday. This placed the company’s future CEO Marco Gobbetti under pressure. Meanwhile Christopher Bailey, the present chief executive suggested that the year 2016 had been the time of transition and said he was positive towards the arrival of the new CEO this July. On the other hand, the shares of Burberry edged higher by 4 percent.
On the continents indexes, European stocks benchmark Stoxx 600 was 0.5 percent down on Thursday’s closing bell and most of its sectors are close to hit the bottom of the benchmark. Elsewhere, markets on Wall Street settled marginally higher as it recouped from their largest sell-off this year.