By Danilo Masoni
MILAN (Reuters) - News of North Korea's latest nuclear test hit European shares on Monday, triggering a broad sell-off, while Novartis fell following the news that its CEO will step down.
The pan-European STOXX 600 (STOXX) index and euro zone blue chips (STOXX50E) both fell 0.5 percent by 0828 GMT and the UK's FTSE (FTSE) slipped 0.3 percent.
No sector in Europe was trading in positive territory while banks (SX7P) led the declines, down 0.9 pct
North Korea said it tested an advanced hydrogen bomb for a long-range missile on Sunday, prompting the warning of a "massive" military response from the United States if it or its allies were threatened.
Uncertainty over the response to the latest North Korean test worried investors, leading to a spike in stock market volatility. Europe's volatility index (V2TX) was up 1.6 points.
"An H-bomb is undeniably different from the previous missile launches or nuclear tests ... However, the biggest question to investors remains - what’s next? Will the tensions lead to negotiations, or war?," said Hussein Sayed, Chief Market Strategist at FXTM.
Such concerns pushed investors into safe haven assets, including gold, whose gains sent precious metal miners Randgold (L:RRS) and Fresnillo (L:FRES) up 2 and 1.9 percent respectively, while Polymetal (L:POLYP) got further support from a JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) upgrade to "neutral" from "underweight".
Fiat Chrysler (MI:FCHA) fell 1.2 percent after its Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne said the carmaker had not received an offer for the company nor was it working on any "big deal". His comments cooled down talk of possible M&A deal that had sent the stock to record highs last week
Pharma heavyweight Novartis (S:NOVN) was down 0.7 percent.
The group said its chief executive Joseph Jimenez would retire in 2018, and chief drug developer Vasant Narasimhan, 41, would run the company from February.
Despite the share price fall, some analysts welcomed the move.
"Sentiment on Joe Jimenez among investors was relatively low, and this change of management should be seen as a positive," said Kepler Cheuvreux analyst David Evans.
"We think the appointment of Vas Narasimhan ... brings deep medical and commercial pharma knowledge plus strong communication."
Novartis (S:NOVN) shares, which have the third largest weight on the MSCI Europe benchmark, have underperformed their sector over the last 10 years.
Gemalto (AS:GTO) fell 6.6 percent after both Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn) and Kepler Cheuvreux cut their price targets for the Dutch digital security company. Deutsche Bank said its structurally declining product areas remained too large to ignore.
UK speciality chemicals firm Victrex (L:VCTX) was up 6.4 percent, hitting a record high after reducing its full year tax guidance and saying Jakob Sigurdsson was joining the firm as CEO-designate. Its shares were the biggest gainers on the STOXX.