(Bloomberg) -- European shares slid for a third day on growing worries about the health of the region’s companies as energy producers suffered from declines in oil prices.
Losses worsened in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, which dropped the most in more than a week, as firms from Bayer AG to builder Vinci SA reported disappointing earnings. Antofagasta Plc led miners down after forecasting a slide in copper production next year, while energy producers including BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc slipped with oil. Real estate companies fell the most since Oct. 6, and other bond proxies suffered, as debt yields climbed.
Concerns about the path of European Central Bank stimulus and its ability to spur economic growth have weighed on the region’s shares, which are heading for their first back-to-back monthly declines since the beginning of the year. Analysts, who expect a profit contraction at Stoxx 600 companies, are the most bearish on lenders and commodity producers, forecasting a more than 16 percent earnings tumble for those industries in 2016.
“Earnings are not strong enough to fuel markets,” said Ralf Zimmermann, an equity strategist at Bankhaus Lampe KG in Dusseldorf, Germany. “Some investors who had expected accelerating earnings may be disappointed.”
Most industry groups in the Stoxx 600 fell, with the gauge dropping as much as 0.9 percent before closing down 0.4 percent as oil pared its losses. In three days, the measure has erased half of last week’s advance, when optimism that the ECB would extend its bond-buying program boosted equities. The Stoxx 600 is still trading below its level from before the U.K. secession vote.
Bayer retreated 1.5 percent after reporting a slide in profits at its consumer health business. Vinci lost 1.2 percent as its revenue fell. Danish enzyme maker Novozymes A/S sank 11 percent after its sales and earnings missed projections, and French computer services company Capgemini SA tumbled 7.3 percent, the most since June, after reporting a drop in revenue.
Commodity producers retreated from their highest prices since August 2015, with Antofagasta sliding 3.2 percent. That dragged the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index down 0.9 percent, the biggest slide among major western-European markets.
While most European stocks fell, Kering SA was among the biggest gainers in the Stoxx 600. The Gucci owner jumped 7.8 percent after posting its fastest sales growth since 2012. Logitech International SA surged 17 percent, the most since January 2014, after the Swiss electronics manufacturer reported better-than-projected revenue gains. Renault SA added 3.2 percent as its sales topped estimates. Airbus Group SE climbed 3.8 percent after saying it’ll cut jobs across its business.
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