LVMH Shares Briefly Sink Almost 9 Percent

PARIS, France — Shares in luxury goods group LVMH briefly fell almost 9 percent at the open on Monday before recovering in what traders said was likely a "fat finger" erroneous trade.

The shares on Paris' CAC 40 opened at €310.45 ($351.34) and fell to €285.7, their lowest since February 12 in the opening minutes.

The stock then recovered most of the lost ground and were at €312.75, down 0.2 percent, at 0905 GMT.

Turnover in the stock was unusually high, with almost 200,000 shares traded in the first 75 minutes after the opening bell, 28 percent of its 100-day average daily total.

LVMH and Euronext, which operates the CAC 40 stock exchange, were not immediately available for comment.

"It was probably a fat finger right at the start of trading," said a Paris-based trader.

"No one understood what happened. It was likely a mistake," said another trader.

By Sudip Kar-Gupta, Blandine Henault, Danilo Masoni and Josephine Mason; editor: Louise Heavens.