By Barbara Kollmeyer, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- European stock markets headed south on
Wednesday, with earnings reports and broker action weighing on
several shares. Heavyweight Seadrill Ltd. dropped after a
downgrade, and Jeronimo Martins SGPS SA fell on earnings, while
Airbus Group NV rose after results.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index , which closed at a six-year high on
Tuesday, fell 0.4% to 336.92.
Heavyweight Seadrill weighed on the main index with a 1.6% loss
after Nomura cut it to neutral from buy. The re-rating came after
Tuesday's results for the offshore driller, which provided a muted
outlook for the deepwater-drilling market in 2014 and said there
would be limited scope to lift its quarterly dividend.
Jeronimo Martins lost 6.3%, after the Portuguese retailer
reported 2013 results that missed analysts forecasts.
Banks were also among decliners, with Credit Suisse Group AG
(CS) down 2.2% after being criticized by U.S. senators over its
role in tax evasion, and UBS AG (UBS) down 1.3%.
On the upside, shares of Swiss Life Holding AG jumped 4.4% after
the insurer raised its dividend 22%. It also posted net income for
2013 that beat forecasts of analysts polled by Bloomberg.
In data news, the Office for National Statistics said U.K. gross
domestic product rose 0.7% quarter-on-quarter in the final three
months of 2013, unrevised from a preliminary estimate and in line
with expectations. Year-on-year, the economy expanded by 1.8%, down
from the previously estimated 1.9%.
Investors in London largely ignored the data, with the FTSE 100
index staying lower after the data, off 0.4% to 6,801.85.
In Germany, a forward-looking gauge of consumer confidence rose
to a seven-year high in March, suggesting the German economy is
gaining broad-based strength.
The German DAX 30 index , however, tripped 0.5% to 9,653.42,
weighed by Lanxess AG down 4.1%. The chemicals firm said
impairments and restructuring charges drove it to a loss in
2013.
Also in Frankfurt, Fresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA
declined 1.6% after UBS cut the health-care firm to neutral from
buy.
France's CAC 40 index dropped 0.5% to 4,392.22. Shares of LVMH
Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMUY) gave up 1.6% after Credit
Suisse cut the luxury-goods firm to underperform from neutral. The
analysts said LVMH is likely to underperform its peers in 2014
despite a diversified portfolio of brands with solid market
positions and a strong management team.
Shares of Bouygues SA rose 0.2% in Paris. The
media-to-construction conglomerate posted a net loss in 2013 after
writing down the value of its 29% stake in Alstom SA , but said it
managed a profit aside from the write-down. The company said it
expects sales in 2014 to remain at the same level as in 2013.
Outside the major indexes, drug maker Novo Nordisk AS (NVO)
dropped 1.6% pulling back from a record high reached on Tuesday,
when J.P. Morgan Cazenove lifted the company to overweight from
underweight.
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