By Ankika Biswas
(Reuters) -Europe’s STOXX 600 closed slightly higher at the start of a holiday-shortened week, as a spike in Novo Nordisk shares boosted the healthcare sector and capped losses on the main stock index.
The pan-European STOXX 600 gauge closed 0.1% higher after clocking its biggest weekly fall in over three months last week. Trading volumes were relatively low ahead of the Christmas break.
Leading sectoral declines, travel and leisure fell 2%, hit by a 10.1% slide in Swedish online gaming company Evolution.
However, shares in Novo Nordisk jumped 5.7%, aiding a 1.4% rise in the healthcare sub-index.
On Friday, the drugmaker’s disappointing results for experimental obesity drug CagriSema wiped out as much as $125 billion off its market value on Friday, down nearly 21%. Separately, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Novo Nordisk’s bleeding disorder drug Alhemo.
Volkswagen shed 1.3%, erasing early gains that came after the automaker struck a deal with unions following months of talks.
Direct Line rose 3.8% on British insurer Aviva’s plans to buy the company in a 3.7 billion pound ($4.65 billion) cash-and-stock deal. Aviva closed 1.1% up.
Meanwhile, European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde said the euro zone was getting very close to reaching 2%, according to a Financial Times interview.
Lagarde also said she opposed retaliation by Europe to tariff threats made by incoming U.S. President Donald Trump. Concerns over this have already weighed on the bloc’s risk assets, piling on its worsening economic outlook.
“Equities had already rallied into the (first ECB rate) cut, as the anticipated recession never materialized. After six months of largely flat equity markets while faster and further cuts by the ECB have become increasingly likely… one more reason to be positive on European equities into 2025,” a Deutsche Bank note said.
Trump’s comments about potential tariffs on the European Union spooked investors and steered a sharp fall in equities on Friday, with the Federal Reserve’s projections of fewer rate cuts in 2025 also sapping investor sentiment last week.
Meanwhile, Spain’s GDP grew 0.8% in the third quarter, while Britain’s economy failed to grow and added to signs of a slowdown that have cast a shadow over Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s new government.
Britain’s main stock index closed 0.2% up, while the Spanish benchmark dipped 0.3%.
(Reporting by Ankika Biswas and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
