European Stocks Slip as Stoxx 600 Trims 12th Monthly Gain
European stocks retreated, with the Stoxx Europe 600 Index trimming its 12th consecutive monthly advance, after its biggest rally in more than a month. U.S. index futures fell, while Asian shares were little changed.
De La Rue Plc lost 1.3 percent after the banknote printer posted fiscal-year sales that dropped more than analysts had predicted. Kazakhmys Plc and Evraz Plc fell at least 1.7 percent after Stoxx Ltd. said it will delete the commodity producers from its benchmark Stoxx 600 index next month. Hennes & Mauritz AB declined 1.3 percent as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recommended investors sell the shares.
The Stoxx 600 retreated 0.5 percent to 306.74 at 8:05 a.m. in London. The equity benchmark is still heading for a 3.4 percent advance in May, extending the longest streak of monthly gains since 1997. It has rallied 9.5 percent so far this year, bolstered by central-bank monetary stimulus and better-than-forecast U.S. economic data. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.4 percent, while the MSCI Asia Pacific Index added less than 0.1 percent.
The number of people out of work in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, increased a seasonally adjusted 5,000 in May, economists forecast before a report at 9:55 a.m. Frankfurt time.
De La Rue, a supplier of cash-handling equipment and security products, fell 1.3 percent to 973 pence. Revenue declined to 484 million pounds ($728 million) in the full year through March, less than the 509 million-pound profit analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had predicted.
Miners Fall
Kazakhmys Plc slumped 3 percent to 325 pence and Evraz declined 1.7 percent to 141.5 pence. The commodity producers are among stocks to be removed from the Stoxx 600 from June 24 this year, according to a statement late yesterday.
H&M slipped 1.3 percent to 235.40 kronor in Stockholm. Goldman Sachs downgraded its rating on the shares to sell from neutral, with analyst Franklin Walding saying profitability at Europe’s second-largest clothing retailer will suffer as customers shift to online shopping.
Salmar ASA (SALM), the Norwegian salmon producer, added 1.3 percent to 58.50 kroner. Sales rose to 1.28 billion kroner ($217 million) in the first quarter, beating the average analyst estimate of 1.04 billion kroner as the company harvested 34 percent more fish in the period.
The number of shares changing hands on Stoxx 600-listed companies was 27 percent lower than the average of the past 30 days, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
