LONDON — HSBC’s London-listed shares tumbled over 6% when the markets opened on Thursday after a privatization bid for its Hong Kong–based subsidiary Hang Seng Bank.
The pan-European Stoxx maintained an earlier 0.3% dip as of 9:54 a.m. (4:54 a.m. ET).
Europe’s largest lender, HSBC, put forward a privatization proposal to shareholders for Hang Seng on Thursday. It is a controlled shareholder of the bank with a 63% stake.
“If approved, Hang Seng will become a wholly owned subsidiary of HSBC Asia Pacific and will be delisted from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange,” HSBC said. Hang Seng’s shares soared upon the news.
The privatization offer weighed on European banks, pulling the sector 1.4% lower in morning trade.
Regional markets closed higher on Wednesday, as investors reacted to proposed tariffs on steel imported into the European Union. The bloc announced plans on Tuesday to reduce tariff-free quotas on imported steel, and to hike tariffs from 25% to 50% on any excess imports.
Market attention turned to France again Thursday after Macron said last night that he will name a new prime minister in the next 48 hours, following the resignation of Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu on Monday. Macron is being urged to pick a PM who is not another centrist ally.
Macron had given Lecornu 48 hours to speak to rival parties about finding a way out of the political deadlock which has gripped France, and a way to avoid dissolving parliament and calling new elections.
French investors, however, appear to be holding tight as the CAC 40 lingers flat.
Elsewhere, the German DAX edged higher, up 0.2%, upwards despite German exports unexpectedly falling in August, dipping 0.5% compared with the previous month. The UK’s FTSE dipped around 0.4%.
In Asia Pacific markets overnight, shares of SoftBank jumped as much as 13% a day after the Japanese giant announced a deal to buy the robotics division of Swiss engineering firm ABB for $5.4 billion, further advancing SoftBank’s AI footprint.
In the U.S., S&P 500 futures were up slightly on Wednesday night after the benchmark index rose to all-time highs yesterday.
In Wednesday’s gains, the S&P 500 notched its eighth winning day of the last nine. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed more than 1% to end above the 23,000 mark for the first time ever.
The Dow, on the other hand, finished slightly below flat as blue-chip stocks lagged. But Nvidia helped the 30-stock index restrict losses, rising more than 2% after CEO Jensen Huang told CNBC that computing demand has “gone up substantially” this year.
— CNBC’s Alex Harring and Nur Hikmah Md Ali contributed to this market report.