EUROPEAN SHARES UNDERPERFORM DUE TO DAIMLER WARNING, WEAK ECONOMIC RECORDS

European shares recorded a weak ended session as warnings from German carmaker Daimler and frail economic data from major economies contributed tension to a global slowdown concern.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index inched lower with 0.3% with most sectors contributing to the inactivity and automakers .SXAP leading the decline with 1.4%.

Daimler (Daign.DE) plummeted with 3% as it was recorded to be the biggest setback on Germany’s blue-chip index .GDAXI. This followed after the German carmaker stated that stronger emissions guidelines would hit gains in 2020 and 2021. In line with this, the firm decided to cut staff costs at its Mercedez-Benz business to acquire more than 1 Billion Euros ($1.1 billion) in savings.

“It’s been well known that the shift to electric will be a difficult one and there is a no real timeline on when the companies will start seeing a turnaround,” said Ken Odeluga, market analyst at City Index in London.

Weak global auto shares affected German carmakers with economic underperformance in China as new emissions-testing guidelines worsen the sector’s current state.

Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, deviated from recession in third quarter while growth indicators from Japan and China fell short, heavily dragging global economy to a slowdown.

The overall economic slowdown hindered European shares from continuing its four-year high record boosted by optimism that the ‘phase one’ of Sino-US trade pact will get signed and better-than-expected gains.

“The initial optimism that we were seeing for the first phase to be completed seems to be a bit overoptimistic now as there seem to be some stumbling blocks,” said Michael Baker, analyst at ETX Capital.

Defensive plays which include .SX6P, healthcare .SXDP, and telecoms .SXDP, which investors took benefit earlier this week started to falter as all hit a record between 0.3% and 1%.

London’s FTSE 100 .FTSE was down with 0.8% as it tallied a 6% setback in private equity firm 3i.

STOXX 600’S top performer was Qiagen, a genetic testing company which soared up to 14% following Bloomberg’s report that Thermo Fisher Scientific sealed a deal with the company.