A signboard of Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis is seen on the top of a building at the company’s campus in Basel. Shares of the company yesterday retreated 1.6% after it reported a fall in third-quarter net income that missed analysts’ forecasts.

Reuters
London

European stock markets fell further from last week’s two-month high yesterday after a drop in BASF and Novartis shares and a weaker Wall Street opening.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index closed down 1% at 1,469.82 points, extending losses in late trade as Wall Street fell following weak economic data and as oil companies’ shares were hit by tumbling Brent crude prices.
The FTSEurofirst is up about 8% since the start of 2015, but down 10% from its 2015 peak reached in April.
Among the losers, BASF shares dropped by 4.7% after the chemicals group lowered its full-year earnings guidance due to weak sales in China, Brazil and other emerging markets.
“While the results were in line with expectations, and the downgraded FY15 outlook was anticipated, the detail is troublesome,” Investec analysts said in a note. “The comment on ‘no volume momentum in September’ is likely to be seen as bearish for 4Q15, in our view.”
Novartis retreated 1.6% after it reported a fall in third-quarter core net income that missed analysts’ forecasts.
Twenty-two per cent of companies in the STOXX Europe 600 index have announced results so far, of which 63% have met or beaten analyst earnings forecasts, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data, and only 48% have met or beaten revenue forecasts.
Semiconductor stocks also suffered after Austria Microsystems (AMS) warned late on Monday of weak fourth-quarter results.
AMS shares slid 15.5% while sector peer Dialog dropped 1.7%, having fallen 20% after its own results in the previous session.
The sector will remain in the spotlight as Apple reports results after the market close yesterday. Credit Suisse said that Dialog’s guidance put volumes generated at Apple, which uses its chips in its products, into question.
Among standout gainers, telecoms group Altice rose 1.8% after BCP and CPPIB said they would buy 30% of Cablevision alongside Altice.
Elsewhere, UK-listed pharmaceutical Shire shot to the top of the FTSEurofirst 300, up 6.9% after positive results from trials of its dry eye drug kept it on track for a potential US launch next year, if approved by regulators.
Talktalk rallied nearly 14% but remains down more than 15% in October, after police made an arrest over a cyber attack that may have led to the theft of data from among the broadband provider’s 4mn customers.