European shares flat as insurance, energy losses offset luxury gains

By Johann M Cherian and Ragini ⁠Mathur

Feb 10 (Reuters) - Europe's benchmark ⁠share index ‍closed flat on Tuesday as investors weighed mixed corporate updates, with BP's decision to suspend share buybacks offsetting gains in the automobile sector following an upbeat forecast from Ferrari.

The pan-European STOXX ‍600 index finished 0.07% lower at 620.97 points, just a whisker away from its all-time ​high.

BP (NYSE: BP) dropped 6.1% after the UK energy giant posted quarterly profit in line with analysts' expectations and suspended its share buyback programme ​as it wrote down around $4 billion in its renewables and biogas businesses.

"While there has been an industry-wide pullback from green investment, this paints a sorry picture for BP’s ability to leverage its expertise into the green energy economy," said Joshua Sherrard-Bewhay, ​ESG analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown.

The broader energy sector slipped 1.6%.

Meanwhile, concerns about artificial intelligence disruption, which have dominated headlines in recent weeks, showed signs of spreading to new corners of the market.

Insurance stocks fell 1.8% and ​led sectoral declines, tracking their U.S. peers after Insurify released an AI‑powered comparison tool built on ChatGPT.

In contrast, automobile and parts sub-index gained 2.5% ‌after Ferrari said its core earnings would rise slightly in 2026 while beating analyst estimates for the fourth quarter of 2025. The luxury carmaker's shares jumped 10.2%, marking their ​biggest one-day gain since March 2020.

Stocks of other luxury goods gained ⁠2.8% and were among top sectoral performers, led by a 10.9% surge in France's Kering . Investors were relieved that the company reported a slightly smaller-than-expected drop in fourth-quarter sales, ‌as new CEO Luca de Meo battles to stabilise the Gucci owner.

Despite Tuesday's muted performance, the STOXX has outperformed its U.S. rival, the S&P 500, so far this year as worries about a trade rift with Washington subside and traders bet ‌on a reviving European economy.

"Geographical diversification is going to be much more important this year than it has been in previous years, ‌given the policy uncertainty that we've experienced even in the first few weeks of this year from the Trump Administration," said Fiona Cincotta, senior market analyst at City Index.

"The rotation into cyclicals, into value stocks, is something that will favour European markets."

Investors ‍are looking ahead to a slew of U.S. economic data this week, including the pivotal inflation and jobs reports.

Among other stocks, Standard Chartered (NASDAQ: STAN) lost 5.7% after the ⁠UK bank said CFO Diego De Giorgi has left the bank.

TUI , Europe's largest travel operator by market share, reported an upbeat quarterly operating profit, although concerns about weaker forward bookings sent shares down 4.9%.

Sweden's Thule gained 14% after the recreational equipment maker beat quarterly revenue expectations, helped by acquisitions.

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Ragini Mathur in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala, Sonia Cheema and Nick Zieminski)

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