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(Reuters) – The auto sector fell on Friday, led by Mercedes-Benz, which lowered its annual margin outlook on Thursday, amid macroeconomic weakness in China.
As the premium car segment suffers from persistently sluggish demand in China, the world’s largest car market, Mercedes-Benz, which had already lowered its outlook in July, has once again revised downwards its profit forecast for 2024 for both its automotive division and the group as a whole.
The luxury automaker now expects adjusted sales return to be between 7.5% and 8.5%, down from 10% to 11% previously.
Mercedes-Benz shares fell by 6.80% to 55 euros at around 08:40 GMT on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, compared with a loss of 0.98% for the Dax at the same time, and a decline of 3.14% for the European segment of the automobile sector.
At the same time in Paris, Forvia fell by 4% to 8.30 euros, Valeo by 3.2% to 9.61 euros, while Renault and Stellantis fell by 2.2% and 2.7% respectively, against a loss of 0.9% for the CAC 40 and the SBF120.
“We view (…) this news as a surprise, particularly given the magnitude and lack of cautionary commentary prior to today’s announcement,” RBC analysts commented.
RBC and a local trader say that while BMW’s warning last week was linked to a supplier problem, Mercedes is citing macroeconomic weakness in China.
(Written by Stéphanie Hamel, with Paolo Laudani, edited by Augustin Turpin)
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