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Heavy losses in utility EDF after a profit warning and other disappointing company updates weighed on European shares on Monday, while a weaker pound helped the FTSE outperform.
EDF fell 8 per cent, leading losers on the STOXX 600 and helping push the pan-European benchmark index down 0.4 per cent by 0934 GMT to its lowest since October 26.
The French group lowered its 2018 earnings and cash flow forecasts due to lower than expected power consumption, lower availability of some of its nuclear reactors in early 2018 and a drop in capacity compensation in Britain.
Exane BNP Paribas affirmed its underperform rating on EDF.
“The market is overly focused on the power price strength and not reflecting appropriately all the other issues facing the group, including the fact that if nuclear output falls short of expectations, higher power prices are actually a negative for them,” it said in an email to clients.
Sonova was another leading faller, down 6.6 per cent.
The Swiss hearing aid maker reported first-half results that fell short of analyst expectations, as sales in the US were dented by an overhaul of the company's retail network there.
According to Thomson Reuters IBES data, about 76 per cent of MSCI EMU companies have reported earnings so far, with 50 per cent of them beating expectations. That compares to 72 per cent for the S&P 500 and 54 per cent for the broader MSCI Europe index.
Losses in EDF and Sonova were partly offset by gains in pharma heavyweight Novartis.
Its shares rose 1 per cent after data showed that patients on its new eye-drug showed less disease activity than those on its rivals Bayer's and Regeneron's drug. Bayer was down 0.4 per cent.
The broader market was also supported by gains in the FTSE, which rose 0.3 per cent, buoyed by gains in big export-oriented including Diageo and Shire. They found support in falls in the pound following press reports of a building parliamentary mutiny against Prime Minister Theresa May. .
Top faller on the FTSE was Coca-Cola HBC, down 5.9 per cent, following a downgrade to neutral from JP Morgan.
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