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Chart: Renault raids drive down auto shares

Chart: Renault raids drive down auto shares
January 15, 2016
Chart: Renault raids drive down auto shares

Panic started to spread after the CGT union published a leaflet on the case, which was then followed up by a report from French news agency AFP. At that point almost €5bn (£3.8bn) had been wiped off the car giant’s market value, prompting bosses at Renault to issue an official response confirming that no defeat devices had been detected. Confirmation of the group’s innocence saw shares regain some of the losses.

But Renault was not the only one to be caught up in this latest scare for the automotive sector. The Stoxx Europe 600 autos index fell as much as 7 per cent on the day, as investors panicked over the likelihood of a widespread repeat of last summer’s Volkswagen scandal.

Trust in the sector won’t have been helped by news of a lawsuit alleging Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (IT:FCA) had inflated its sales figures. That development sent shares in the Italian-American multinational down 9 per cent yesterday.