European stocks fell for the fourth time in five sessions Wednesday after the U.S. dollar hit another record low against the euro and oil flirted with US$100 a barrel, according to AP. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index shed 0.9 percent to 6,420.1, while France's CAC-40 Index dipped 0.5 percent to 5,683.22. Germany's DAX Index dropped 0.4 percent to 7,799.62. Stocks such as luxury goods maker LVMH, Dutch retail group Ahold and telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent paced a retreat by companies which derive a large portion of their revenues from the U.S., as the euro topped US$1.47 and the pound hit US$2.10. «If the dollar decline speeds up it could hurt equities even more in terms of risk aversion,» said Emmanuel Bourdeix, head of the equity satellite team at Credit Agricole Asset Management. Ahold, which gets about 55 percent of its revenues from the U.S., fell 1 percent, while Alcatel-Lucent, which derives about 33 percent of revenue from across the Atlantic, lost 3.4 percent. LVMH, which sources around 26 percent of revenues in the U.S., slipped 1.9 percent. Sentiment was further undermined by higher oil prices as crude futures on the Nymex traded as high as US$98.62 a barrel. British Airways led airline stocks lower on fears the mounting cost of oil will begin to bite into earnings. British Airways lost 5 percent and Germany's Lufthansa slid 4 percent. Specialty chemicals company Clariant International dived 13 percent after it reported a big drop in third-quarter operating profit on restructuring charges and lowered its outlook for the full year. Clariant said it raised prices to customers 1 percent during the quarter, but the increase wasn't enough to counteract the effect of high raw material prices and energy costs. Financial stocks came under pressure after France's Societe Generale said declining revenue at its corporate and investment bank helped trigger a 12 percent drop in third-quarter net profit. It also announced a total of ¤404 million (US$587.7 million) in writedowns related to the financial crisis. SocGen shares dipped 1.2 percent. Meanwhile, Dutch financial services company ING Groep reported a 47 percent rise in third-quarter net profit and said it sees no material impairments on its ¤3.1 billion (US$4.5 billion) portfolio of subprime assets. ING shares fell 2 percent. France's Total surged 4.7 percent after reporting a higher-than-expected adjusted net profit _ which strips out the impact of inventory valuations and is analysts' preferred profit measure. Danish brewer Carlsberg AS added 1.2 percent after it posted a 29 percent rise in third-quarter net profit and said it was still committed to obtaining a recommendation from the Scottish & Newcastle, despite the U.K. brewer's refusal to enter into takeover talks. Scottish & Newcastle shares lost 1 percent in London.
