Carrefour shares plunge 12% on full-year profit warning

PARIS - 31 Aug 2017: Shares in Carrefour plunged by more than 12 percent on the Paris stock exchange on Thursday after the French supermarket group's first-half results came in lower than expected and it warned that full-year profits would fall by around 12 percent.

At around 0725 GMT, Carrefour's shares were showing a loss of 12.3 percent at 17.10 euros, while the overall market was higher.

The plunge in Carrefour's share price dragged down the rest of the retail sector, with shares in rival group Casino down by more than 5.0 percent.

Late on Wednesday, Carrefour, the world's second-largest retailer, had warned that 2017 operating profit would fall by around 12 percent and cut its sales growth target.

That was after the group posted a steeper-than-expected fall in first-half earnings.

"Our 2017 results will be impacted by our first-half performance and an operating environment that will remain difficult in the second half in some countries," said Carrefour's new chief executive Alexandre Bompard.

In the six months to June, Carrefour booked a bottom-line net profit of 78 million euros, down 39.5 percent on the year, and underlying or operating profit fell by 12.5 percent to 621 million euros.

First-half sales, by contrast, grew by 6.2 percent to 43.05 billion euros.