European stocks plunged sharply and hit one-month lows on Monday as worries surrounding China's Covid resurgence rendered the mood bearish and triggered heavy selling across the board. Rising concerns about inflation, looming interest rate hikes, and persisting concerns over Russia-Ukraine conflict weighed as well.
A warning from Beijing that Covid has been spreading undetected for about a week despite strict lockdowns in Shanghai, and fears over the government extending coronavirus restrictions to Beijing unnerved investors.
News about reelection of Emmanuel Macron as French President for another term helped limit losses a bit. Shares of energy and mining firms fell sharply, tracking falling crude oil and bullion prices.
The pan European Stoxx 600 tumbled 1.76%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 shed 1.72%, Germany's DAX dropped 1.51% and France's CAC 40 drifted down 1.97%. Switzerland's SMI ended 1.41% down.
Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia and Sweden closed sharply lower.
Iceland, Portugal and Spain also ended with moderate losses. Denmark settled flat, while Turkey closed higher. In the German DAX Deutsche bank was the worst performer, with shares falling 5.7%. The banking giant has been under pressure as large institutional investors have been heavy sellers in the name since the start of the year. There were a handful of rising shares, with the best among them being the chemical and consumer products firm Henkel, where shares rose 1.7% on the day.
In the French CAC 40 Accelor Mittal saw it shares plummet 8.8%. The steel manufacturer is under pressure from worries over Chinese demand potentially dropping significantly. The best performer in the CAC 40 was utility Engie, with shares rising 2% as investors sought out safe havens.
Similarly, In London the FTSE 100 fell 1.9%, with sharp losses from the basic resource and miners contributing heavily to the downside. Shares of Anglo American fell 6.9%, Glencore was down 5.6%, and Rio Tinto dropped 5.1%. Consumer goods manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser had the best performance on the index as shares rose 2.9% after receiving an “overweight” rating from Morgan Stanley.
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