Euromarkets: The first quarter of losses for two years ended with a daily drop

LAST UPDATE: 19.17

The European stock markets closed with losses both in the day and in the first quarter of 2022, in a month marked by the global geopolitical and economic uncertainty created by the Russian invasion of Ukraine since the end of February.

On the board, the pan-European index Stoxx 600 closed with a daily drop of 0.94%, at 455.86 points, recording an increase for the whole of March of 0.8%. For the first quarter of 2022, the index recorded losses of 6.6%, in its worst quarter in two years. The other pan-European index, Eurostoxx 50with the “heavy papers” of the eurozone, closed with a fall of 1.43%, at 3,902.52 points.

The German DAX “lost” 1.31%, to 14,414.75 points, with the French CAC 40 to fall by 1.21 %%, to 6,659.87, while the British FTSE 100 recorded losses of 0.83%, at 7,515.68.

On the periphery, the Italian FTSE MIB recorded a drop of 1.10%, to 25,021.26 points, with the Spanish IBEX 35 to “lose” 1.23%, at 8,445.10.

The retail and banking sectors led the losses on Thursday, while utilities had the best performance.

In the field of individual shares, the British advertising giant S4 Capital saw its share sink more than 6%, after the delay which it announced in the announcement of its corporate results. At the top of the Stoxx 600, the British wealth management company Quilter saw its share gain 2.2%.

The share of Hennes & Mauritz sank by 13%, its biggest drop since 2017, after the strong “brake” it saw in the growth of its revenues, being one of the first retailers to signal the blow to consumption that has caused the war in Ukraine.

Geopolitical uncertainty and concerns about high inflation dominated the investment climate in March. Both European and American markets have been down since Wednesday, following the euphoria that followed the euphoria of the Russia-Ukraine peace talks – which ultimately seemed to be refuted.

The government of US President Joe Biden plans to market 1 million barrels of the country’s strategic reserves daily for a period of six months, in a move that de-escalates the prices of black gold.