LLOY Lloyds Banking Group Plc

By Steve Goldstein, MarketWatch

European stock markets listless

Shares of Air France-KLM on Monday nosedived on a warning over bookings, and other airlines weakened, in mostly listless Eurpean stock markets on Monday.

Air France-KLM shares (AF.FR) plunged 9% as the airline said "close-in bookings in the peak travel period are weaker than foreseen in view of softening macro-economic environment."

Mark Simpson, an analyst at Goodbody Stockbrokers, said consensus operating profit forecasts of 1.3 billion euros "will likely move lower on the implied implications for yields on weaker close in bookings." The guidance had been for stable pricing for the network airlines.

Separately, a French minister told Le Parisien that Air France "wanted to make an offer" for the bankrupt airline Aigle Azur, Reuters reported (https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-air-france-klm-aigle-azur/air-france-klm-shares-slump-on-reports-of-rescue-of-bankrupt-aigle-azur-idUKKCN1VU0MQ?il=0).

Other European airlines including easyJet (EZJ.LN) , International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG.LN) , Ryanair Holdings (RY4C.DB) (RY4C.DB) and Deutsche Lufthansa (LHA.XE) also lost ground. British Airways, a unit of International Consolidated Airlines Group, separately was forced to cancel nearly all of its flights (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/british-airways-grounds-nearly-all-flights-as-pilots-strike-2019-09-09)due to an airline strike.

Broader markets showed little movement. The Stoxx Europe 600 index weakened 0.03% to 387.01.

The German DAX gained 0.14% to 12208.19, the French CAC 40 dropped 0.08% to 5599.38 and the U.K. FTSE 100 declined 0.07% to 7277.42.

U.S. stock futures were a bit stronger.

There was a slight bit of positive news on the U.S.-China trade war front as Politico reported that China offered to make modest U.S. agricultural purchases -- if the U.S. relaxed restrictions on Huawei and also delayed the next tariff increase.

U.K. economic data came in better than forecast, with monthly GDP rising by 0.3% and industrial production edging upward in July.

Of other notable movers, Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY.LN) (LLOY.LN) dropped 1% after becoming the latest British bank to report rising claims for payment protection insurance, saying it will have to take an additional charge in the range of GBP1.2 billion to GBP1.8 billion ($2.2 billion). It halted its stock buyback program.

ProSiebenSat.1 Media (PSM.XE) rallied over 4% as UBS upgraded the company to buy from neutral, saying it's too cheap to ignore despite the macro headwinds.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 09, 2019 05:12 ET (09:12 GMT)

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