Europe Stocks Fall as Novo Nordisk Plunges on Drug Delay

European stocks declined as Novo Nordisk A/S sank the most in almost four years after failing to win American approval for a new drug. U.S. index futures rose, while most Asian markets were closed for the Lunar New Year.
Novo Nordisk, the world’s largest insulin maker, tumbled 12 percent. Lundin Petroleum AB lost 9.1 percent after the company said resources at its Johan Sverdrup oil discovery in the North Sea may be toward the low end of forecasts. Royal Ahold NV rallied 4.3 percent after agreeing to sell its 60 percent stake in ICA, Sweden’s largest food retailer, for $3.1 billion.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.4 percent to 286.31 at 11:56 a.m. in London. The gauge has still advanced 2.4 percent this year after U.S. lawmakers agreed on a budget avoiding tax increases and spending cuts that had threatened to push the world’s largest economy into a recession. The Euro Stoxx 50 Index of euro-area shares, which excludes Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, advanced 0.2 percent today.
Stocks “were off to the races at the beginning of the year and it was too much to be sustainable,” Frances Hudson, who helps manage about $248 billion as a strategist at Standard Life Investments in London, said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Francine Lacqua. “Having a nice pause to consolidate is a good thing and allows people to take a more measured approach.”
2007 High
Standard & Poor’s 500 Index futures gained 0.2 percent today after the benchmark gauge for U.S. equities closed at the highest level since November 2007 last week. The volume of shares changing hands in Stoxx 600 companies was 33 percent lower than the 30-day average, as markets in Japan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia were closed, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Ministers from the 17-member euro area meet today to discuss aid to Cyprus and Greece as a tightening election contest in Italy and a political scandal in Spain threaten to reignite the region’s debt crisis. Group of 20 finance chiefs and central bankers will gather in Moscow on Friday.
European companies from Barclays Plc to Total SA and Heineken NV are due to report earnings this week, Bloomberg data show. Stoxx 600 members are forecast to increase dividends by 1.8 percent in 2013, according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Companies around the world are rewarding shareholders with the highest dividends in more than two decades compared with bond interest payments. Companies in the MSCI World Index paid out an average 2.7 percent of their share price as of last week, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with the 2.6 percent yield on the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Corporate Index of investment-grade bonds and 6.1 percent for securities in the Barclays Global High-Yield Index.
Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk, which accounts for 0.9 percent of the Stoxx 600 by weighting, tumbled 130 kroner to 940 kroner, the biggest drop since April 2009. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said its Tresiba diabetes medication can’t be approved without additional data on heart safety and the Danish drugmaker won’t be able to provide the information this year, according to a statement from Novo Nordisk.
Sanofi, which competes with Novo Nordisk to dominate the diabetes market with its Lantus insulin, climbed 4.4 percent to 72.10 euros in Paris, the biggest jump since October 2011.
Lundin Petroleum fell 15 kronor to 149.90 kronor in Stockholm after saying resources in its part of the Johan Sverdrup discovery will probably be within the lower half of the forecast for 800 million to 1.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Det Norske Oljeselskap ASA, which owns parts of the discovery, declined 4.3 percent to 82.25 kroner.
Fugro Falls
Fugro NV dropped 6.7 percent to 39.27 euros in Amsterdam. Supervisory board Vice Chairman Frans Cremers quit the biggest deepwater-oilfield surveyor because of “the pace with which changes within the financial organisation of Fugro are implemented and that decisions of the supervisory board in respect thereof are not adequately carried through,” it said.
Ahold climbed 45 cents to 11.05 euros after the retailer agreed to sell a stake in ICA to Hakon Invest AB for 20 billion kronor ($3.1 billion). Ahold will also pay a 1.2 billion-kronor dividend payment from ICA to Hakon.
Bilfinger SE gained 2.7 percent to 75.95 euros after Germany’s second-largest construction company forecast an increase in profit in 2013, driven by savings and demands for engineering work and services in the power industry. The company reported a 2 percent gain in sales last year to 8.64 billion euros ($12 billion).