European shares close lower; Tesco tanks
European shares closed down on Monday, with sentiment curbed by lower commodity prices, as well as an unexpected profit warning from U.K. supermarket Tesco.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 provisionally closed down 0.6 percent at 1,393.23 points, with U.K. supermarket Tesco the major laggard. Shares of the company closed down around 11.6 percent after it announced it had overstated its half-year profits by £250 million ($409 million). Other major U.K. supermarkets like WM Morrisson and Sainsbury also closed lower on the news.
This, and weakness in basic resources, weighed heavily on the U.K.'s FTSE 100, which closed provisionally down around 1.0 percent. Anglo American lost roughly 3.1 percent and Rio Tinto fell 3.8 percent.
Glencore closed down nearly 5 percent, with share also hit by the news of a contract dispute with London Mining.
Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 indexes both closed provisionally down 0.5 percent.
European markets
| TICKER | COMPANY | PRICE | CHANGE | %CHANGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| .FTSE | FTSE 100 | 8,445.80 | +17.67 | +0.21% |
| .GDAXI | DAX | 18,869.36 | +152.94 | +0.82% |
| .FCHI | CAC 40 Index | 8,239.99 | +14.19 | +0.17% |
| .FTMIB | FTSE MIB | 35,366.20 | +214.78 | +0.61% |
| .IBEX | IBEX 35 Idx | 11,362.80 | +123.50 | +1.10% |
The President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, testified before the European Union's committee of economic affairs on Monday afternoon. He reitereated that the euro zone recovery was losing momentum and said he expected inflation to remain at low levels, before rising in 2015 and 2016.
He added that banks' take-up of cheap loans known as TLTROs or targeted longer-term refinancing operations was as expected, and added that it was too early to assess their impact.
Read MoreDraghi gets agrilling, defends cheap loan program
U.S. stocks fell on Monday, retreating from record highs. Apple erased gains after reporting that weekend sales of the latest versions of its iPhone topped 10 million.Yahoo shares fell after downgrades by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Sanford Bernstein, following Friday's market debut by Alibaba.
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