Jan 30 (Reuters) – European shares fell on Monday amid a rout across the board as caution crept in ahead of a slew of central bank policy meetings later this week, with shares of rate-sensitive stocks like technology among the major drags.
The pan-European STOXX 600 (.STOXX) was down 0.6% at 0818 GMT.
Europe’s technology index (.SX8P), led by losses in Prosus NV (PRX.AS) and ASML Holding NV (ASML.AS), was the top decliner among sectors – down 2.1%.
Money market bets show that the U.S. Federal Reserve is set to raise its policy rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 4.50%-4.75% on Wednesday, while the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BoE) are seen raising rates by 50 bps each to 2.50% and 4.0% on Thursday.
Philips (PHG.AS) gained 4.3% after the Dutch health technology company announced it would scrap 6,000 jobs to restore profitability following a recall of respiratory devices that knocked off 70% of its market value.
German renewable firm PNE AG (PNEGn.DE) slid 15.3% after Morgan Stanley’s (MS.N) infrastructure investment arm informed PNE AG’s board that it is no longer pursuing talks with potential buyers of Photon’s PNE stake.
Reporting by Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman
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