Azernews.Az

By Bloomberg

European stocks declined for a third day as energy companies extended losses.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index retreated 0.5 percent to 332.29 at 8:41 a.m. in London. The gauge lost 2.2 percent yesterday, closing down 4.8 percent from an almost seven-year high last month, amid a slump in energy shares and growing concern over Greece as Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said this month’s election could lead to the nation exiting the euro area. The Euro Stoxx 50 Index of the biggest companies in the region sank 3.7 percent yesterday, the most since November 2011.

The plunge in oil-and-gas companies, as well as Samaras’s failure to get enough backing for his presidential candidate, leading to early elections on Jan. 25, triggered the first December decline for the Stoxx 600 since 2008. That pared the index’s annual gain to 4.4 percent, the smallest since 1992.

That’s also pushed up a gauge of stock volatility. The VStoxx Index closed at its highest level since Oct. 16 yesterday. That day, it reached a two-year high.

Greece’s ASE Index lost 5.6 percent yesterday, closing at its lowest level since November 2012. Benchmark equity gauges of Italy, Spain, France and Portugal all dropped more than 3 percent.

Investors are also waiting for the next European Central Bank meeting on Jan. 22, with speculation rising that it will push ahead with broader stimulus measures amid weak inflation numbers. December consumer prices in Germany slowed to the lowest level in more than five years, and economists estimate euro-area data tomorrow will show a decline.

A measure of energy companies posted the second-biggest decline of the 19 industry groups on the Stoxx 600 today.