British clothes chain Next and Sweden's Kinnevik, aninvestor in online fashion retailer Zalando, are among Europe's top blue chipfallers as below-expectations earnings from UK-listed ASOS darken theoutlook for the sector.
AIM-listed ASOS plunges as much as 20 percent after announcingbelow-forecast retail sales and cutting its profit margin outlook.
Kinnevik, which owns 36 percent of Zalando, falls 5.7 percent. Zalandorivals ASOS as Europe's largest fashion retail website, and traders say that thefigures from ASOS would hit all fashion firms that depended on the web for theirrevenues.
Like ASOS, shares in Kinnevik more than doubled in 2013, leaving it tradingat a forward price-to-earnings multiple of over 44 times, according to ThomsonReuters StarMine data.
"On a day where ASOS is down as much as 20 percent, we're seeing an effecton other heavy presence online retailers," Toby Morris, senior sales trader atCMC Markets, said.
Newly listed boohoo.com falls 12.6 percent, taking its drop sinceits flotation on Friday to over 22 percent. Italy's online-only fashion retailerYoox drops 3.7 percent.
Next, which unlike competitors that focus purely online still retains ahigh street presence, drops 1.6 percent, still underperforming a 0.4 percentfall for the STOXX Europe Retailers index.
Reuters messaging rm://alistair.smout.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net