Stocks down despite strong results from Credit Suisse, Unilever

European stocks fell for a third day as a decline in energy shares outweighed better-than-expected results from Credit Suisse and Unilever.

BP’s 1.2 per cent drop dragged oil-and-gas stocks to the worst performance of the 19 industry groups on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index.

Credit Suisse rose 6.7 per cent after quarterly profit beat estimates. Unilever climbed 2.4 per cent after the maker of Magnum ice cream reported higher-than-forecast sales growth.

The Stoxx 600 slid 0.3 per cent to 399.29 at 11:57 am in London, after earlier rising as much as 0.6 per cent.

The volume of shares changing hands was 25 per cent lower than the 30-day average.

Shares rose to within 2 per cent of their record in a nine-day rally through Monday.

"We expect good profit growth in Europe, so there shouldn't really be a massive rally on the back of a strong earnings season," said Ben Kumar, who helps oversee about $14 billion at Seven Investment Management in London.

The earnings season is picking up pace in Europe, with more than 200 Stoxx 600 companies scheduled to report through the rest of the month.

Bloomberg