European Shares Mostly Lower As Trump Rally Falters

(RTTNews) - European stocks reversed early gains on Friday, although German shares still remain in positive territory after a strong earnings update from Europe's largest insurer Allianz.

After digesting Donald Trump's historic victory, investors are now taking stock of his positions on a range of domestic and foreign policy issues.

Donald Trump winning the U.S. presidential election is a major event, but it is too early to say if that would affect the policy decision in December, European Central Bank Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said today.

"It is not for the ECB to assess the political consequences," Coeure said in an interview to the newspaper Le Progrès de Lyon and other French newspapers.

Brexit worries also returned to the fore after some MPs told the BBC they are prepared to vote against triggering Article 50.

The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index is marginally lower at 338.86 in late opening deals after declining 0.3 percent on Thursday.

France's CAC 40 index is moving down 0.4 percent to 4,513 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 is losing 1.2 percent at 6,749, while the German DAX is currently up 0.3 percent at 10,659.

Precious metals miners Fresnillo and Randgold Resources are down over 4 percent as gold prices hit fresh four-week lows.

SIG Plc shares are down as much as 20 percent after the British building materials supplier forecast lower underlying pretax profit for fiscal 2016, reflecting weaker than anticipated trading conditions and intensified competition in the U.K.

Royal Dutch Shell is losing about 2 percent on a report that it plans to invest $10 billion in Brazil over the next five years.

German insurer Allianz is rallying 2.5 percent after its third-quarter profit beat forecasts amid good performance across its business classes.

Italian utility Enel is rising 2 percent on reporting a rise in nine-month profit.

Shares of utility Innogy are plunging 5 percent after the company, which was split from RWE last month, reported lower net income for the first nine months of fiscal year.

On a light day on the economic front, final data from Destatis showed that German consumer inflation climbed an annual 0.8 percent in October, a two-year high and faster than the 0.7 percent rise seen in September.

At the same time, the wholesale price index increased for the first time in more than three years. Wholesale prices climbed 0.5 percent in the month from last year, reversing a 0.3 percent drop in September.