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* European shares little changed ahead of big events this week
* Investors await for Fed and ECB meetings, UK vote, trade deadline
* STOXX 600 and DAX flat, FTSE 100 down 0.1%
* Tullow Oil down nearly 60% as CEO quits, co scraps dividend
Welcome to the home for real-time coverage of European equity markets brought to you by Reuters
stocks reporters and anchored today by Julien Ponthus Reach him on Messenger to share your
thoughts on market moves: julien.ponthus.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net
TALKING ABOUT TULLOW, TAKE A LOOK AT THE WILD SIDE (1033 GMT)
Things can always get worse: shares in Tullow Oil opened down less than 50%, quickly
crossed that benchmark and hit the -60% bar within an hour of trading.
Talking about wild moves on the UK market, The Share Centre has just come up with a list of
spectacular moves in 2019.
Looking at companies relevant in terms of size or notoriety, Metro Bank is
definitely on the list of those likely to exit 2019 with a spectacular black eye. It lost nearly
90% as the disruption of the UK banking industry remains elusive at best.
On the FTSE 100, shares in JD Sports Fashion have more than doubled (+130%) and the
retailer is now worth close to 8 billion pounds.
Other examples that retail isn't dead for everyone are Pets at Home with a 120%
rise and Boohoo Group with a 70% hike.
Looking at smaller market cap, it's always possible to find extraordinary moves like in the
pharma space where breakthroughs pay off handsomely: Silence Therapeutics is up a
whopping 930%!
But as stressed by Helal Miah, analyst at The Share Centre, "the worst case scenarios" isn't
sustaining a spectacular fall like Tullow, it's being wiped out altogether like Thomas Cook.
One thing companies having experienced an extreme outcome often share is a difficult spot on
the UK high street:
(Julien Ponthus)
*****
OPENING SNAPSHOT: SPECTACULAR TULLOW OIL FALL! (0829 GMT)
With the STOXX 600 losing an uninspiring 0.1%, let's get down to where the action is this
morning:
Tullow oil is down over 50% after scrapping its dividend and announcing its CEO is
leaving. The share is back to 2004 levels and it what is a truly dramatic market move:
Another big mover but on a much wider scale is Osram jumping 12% after AMS announced its bid
for the German company had been successful. The Austrian company's shares are logically feeling
the weight of the victory on its shoulders with a 3.2% fall.
M&A is definitely the driver today with Tesco up over 5% as it considers retreating from
some Asian markets.
Here's an overview of the European bourses 20 minutes after the open. Granted, this is quite
dull in comparison with the likes of Tullow, Osram or Tesco!
(Julien Ponthus)
*****
ON THE RADAR: M&A, LOTS OF IT (0753 GMT)
One hot spot will be the battle for food delivery dominance with Dutch technology giant
Prosus raising its unsolicited offer for Just Eat to 740 pence per share, valuing the company at
around 5.05 billion pounds.
Some M&A also spicing things up in the pharma sector with Sanofi announcing a deal to buy
U.S. Synthorx in a cash deal worth around $2.5 billion. There’s probably more to come in the M&A
pipeline with the French company ready to update the market on its strategy at an investor day
tomorrow.
In Britain, Tesco’s strategy is under the spotlight after it signalled a further retreat
from its once lofty global ambitions by starting a review of its remaining Asian businesses,
which could result in a sale of those Thai and Malaysian operations.
Meanwhile Swiss drug maker Roche extended its offer again for gene therapy specialist Spark
Therapeutics. On Friday Austrian sensor specialist AMS said it had succeeded at its second
attempt with a 4.6 billion euro bid for Osram.
Other individual movers: Tullow Oil scrapping its dividends and Amigo shares will be under
scrutiny with a management reshuffle.
(Julien Ponthus)
*****
MORNING CALL: ANY NFP-MOMENTUM LEFT? (0625 GMT)
While last Friday's stellar U.S. job data fuelled a rally on both sides of the pound, it
seems whatever's left from that momentum is quickly fading out.
Asian stocks did manage to catch up somewhat overnight but a few hours later, as we stand
now, there just isn't much wind left in Europe's sails.
Financial spreadbetters expect London's FTSE to open 18 points lower, Frankfurt's DAX to go
down 6 points and Paris' CAC to lose 9 points.
(Julien Ponthus)
*****
(Reporting by Danilo Masoni, Joice Alves, Julien Ponthus and Thyagaraju Adinarayan)
