London - Company earnings depressed Europe's regional stock indexes on Wednesday, with the luxury sector dragging on the market.
Luxury groups Richemont and Kering were among the worst performers after Richemont warned its net profit for the year would drop by 36 percent and Kering posted a bigger-than-expected drop in sales.
However, shares in Tesco rose more than 1 percent as investors and analysts bet the worst of its losses were behind the retailer after news that property writedowns brought on its worst-ever loss.
“In a way (the losses) are also encouraging, as they signal a determination by management to clean the slate and get on with turning the business around,” CMC Markets analyst Michael Hewson said.
The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 was down 0.1 percent at 1,626.68 points by 0831 GMT, with benchmarks in France, Germany weaker, and Britain's FTSE 100, exposed to energy firms, off 0.5 percent as oil prices fell.
The oil-and-gas sector was the worst performer in Europe, with BP down 0.8 percent and France's Total down 1.6 percent.
Among standout gainers, shares in Volvo jumped more than 12 percent after the company named the head of Volkswagen-owned Scania as its chief executive.
Rolls-Royce Holdings also rose, climbing 3.4 percent after saying its chief executive would retire in July and be succeeded by the former head of ARM.
Among other companies reporting results, Heineken fell 2 percent after keeping its full-year outlook and reporting a rise in organic revenue, while Roche rose 1.3 percent after reporting a rise in quarterly revenue.
Despite a negative start to trading, the backdrop of a weak euro and monetary stimulus from the European Central Bank's bond-buying scheme has fuelled investor demand for equities as European companies head for their strongest earnings season in four years.
“We are generally quite bullish on Western Europe at the moment here, and have been buyers in particular of German and French equities,” Sanlam Securities' head of execution trading Mark Ward said.
Reuters