Exclusive Swiss retailer and owner of Cartier watches Richemont is the latest luxury large cap to feel the pinch of the diamond-encrusted jewell-buying elite.
In a trading statement released on Monday, the Zurich-listed company saw a dramatic slowdown in Europe when comparing year-on-year performance.
Whereas last-year’s sales growth gained 43%, this year saw only 10% in growth at actual rates.
Things were worse in the Americas, where sales entered negative growth of -4% compared to 41% of positive growth the year before.
Japanese sales growth fell from 75% to just 6%, while the Middle East and Africa fell from 18% to 12%.
Asia Pacific was the one regional outlier, having witnessed 32% sales growth year on year.
China’s appetite for luxury items has been a focus for high-end watch, jewellery and handbag makers in recent years, but warnings of a frail economic recovery underscored by today’s sluggish gross domestic product data appear to have spooked investors.
Richemont shares tumbled over 8% following the trading update, causing a knock-on effect among other high-end retail names.
LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the largest luxury retailer in the world, was sent 3.5% lower, with Hermès faring nearly as poorly.
The luxury brand-dominated Paris stock market has thus been dragged 1.3% lower since Friday’s closing bell.