EU Stocks: Deliveroo Disappoints After IPO; AU Stocks Higher

European stocks edged lower on Wednesday, shedding some of the gains from the previous session. This came after food delivery company Deliveroo’s float disappointed.

The DAX in Germany was unchanged, the CAC 40 in France lost 0.1% and the U.K.’s FTSE index dipped 0.3% at 4 AM ET (0900 GMT).

The CAC 40 and Amsterdam’s AEX hit a new 52-week high and the DAX topped 15,000 points for the first time. As a result, European stocks posted strong gains on Tuesday.

This positive tone was short-lived though, as the region struggled to cope with a rise in new coronavirus cases.  The surge has caused many governments to tighten restrictive measures, with a lack of progress in their vaccination programs.

On Tuesday, the country’s health ministry said that the number of people in intensive care units with COVID-19 had reached the highest level this year. On the week, the number of new cases increased 6.3%. This was the sharpest rise since the end of November.

In the corporate sector, Deliveroo stock declined as much as 30% from the IPO price. This was after making one of the most anticipated London stock market listings. That was the largest float on the London Stock Exchange since Glencore in May 2011.

In the EU stock market, Peers Just Eat Takeaway slipped 0.8% and Delivery Hero slid %. 

Moreover, Swedish retailer H&M stock dropped 1.2% after it reported a quarterly loss. The company said it would not propose a dividend at its annual general meeting.

On Wednesday, the French consulting and IT services provider, Capgemini raised its mid-term margin targets. In effect, its stock rose 1.7%.

German car manufacturer, Daimler stock gained 0.1% after it repeated that it expects 2021 to be a significantly better year for revenue and pretax profits than last year’s. Given that the global shortage of semiconductor chips seemed to have worsened since it first made that forecast, the guidance is almost equivalent to an upgrade

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 up 0.78%

Elsewhere, on Wednesday, Australia stocks were higher after the close. Gains in the Industrials, A-REITs and Consumer Staples sectors led the shares higher.

The S&P/ASX 200 added 0.78%, at the close in Sydney. 

On the Sydney Stock Exchange, the number of rising stocks exceeded the number of declining ones by 710 to 623 and 356 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX was down 2.55% to 12.056.