EUROPEAN: bourses witnessed another week of plunging share prices as the credit crisis extended its reach to sectors beyond finance and banking, with all the exchanges tracked seeing double-digit declines for the reporting period to October 27. With just a few exceptions, drug stocks were not spared from the meltdown, although most of the majors managed to outperform their domestic markets. FRANKFURT saw early gains in Bayer, on persistent speculation of a takeover approach by US drug giant Pfizer, but ended the week down 9.5%, ahead of reporting financial results, which pleased investors (see page 11). Merck KGaA posted strong third-quarter results on the last reporting day, fuelling a price increase but not sufficient to mitigate earlier falls, leaving the stock with a week-on-week decline of 8.5% (page 11). There was a dismal performance from DSM in AMSTERDAM, as the firm cut its full-year operating profit target, citing lower demand due to the global economic slowdown, sending the shares skidding 21.7% to a four-year low.
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A Vienna-based pharmaceutical company specializing in the commercialization and distribution of innovative medicines across Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.
Stock Commentary - Europe - week to Oc 27, 2008
EUROPEAN: bourses witnessed another week of plunging share prices as the credit crisis extended its reach to sectors beyond finance and banking, with all the exchanges tracked seeing double-digit declines for the reporting period to October 27. With just a few exceptions, drug stocks were not spared from the meltdown, although most of the majors managed to outperform their domestic markets. FRANKFURT saw early gains in Bayer, on persistent speculation of a takeover approach by US drug giant Pfizer, but ended the week down 9.5%, ahead of reporting financial results, which pleased investors (see page 11). Merck KGaA posted strong third-quarter results on the last reporting day, fuelling a price increase but not sufficient to mitigate earlier falls, leaving the stock with a week-on-week decline of 8.5% (page 11). There was a dismal performance from DSM in AMSTERDAM, as the firm cut its full-year operating profit target, citing lower demand due to the global economic slowdown, sending the shares skidding 21.7% to a four-year low.
This article is accessible to registered users, to continue reading please register for free. A free trial will give you access to exclusive features, interviews, round-ups and commentary from the sharpest minds in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology space for a week. If you are already a registered user please login. If your trial has come to an end, you can subscribe here.
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