NOC Northrop Grumman Corp Holding Co

LONDON—Amid the global market turbulence following Donald Trump's surprise presidential election victory, some early corporate winners and losers were emerging in European stock markets.

U.S. stock futures plunged overnight on the surprise Trump win, and most global indexes were also down sharply. The Nikkei stock index was down 3%, while the FTSE 100 index of British blue chips was down 0.2%. Still, some investors were taking early cues to pick possible beneficiaries.

Pharmaceutical stocks shot higher in Europe, after being weighed down for months by the prospect of a pricing crackdown in the U.S.—one of the industry's most lucrative markets—threatened by a Hillary Clinton presidency. Pharmaceutical companies also are widely regarded as a haven during periods of political turmoil.

GlaxoSmithKline PLC and AstraZeneca PLC were both up about 2% in early London trading.

Some mining companies also rose early in Europe. Gold prices were soaring on safe-haven buys. Mr. Trump has been outspoken in his support of coal miners in the U.S.—a sentiment that might be reverberating more broadly among shares of the world's more diversified miners. Mr. Trump has also been broadly skeptical of energy-industry regulation that has weighed on oil, gas and other extractive resources companies for years.

Still, most big oil firms, including BP PLC and Royal Dutch Shell PLC, were down sharply early in London after oil markets took a big hit amid the wider market upheaval.

BAE Systems PLC, Europe's biggest arms maker, rose early Wednesday. Mr. Trump had signaled before his election victory that European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization would have to contribute more to their own defense.

Whether any of these moves end up being knee-jerk reactions, or early signals of which global sectors may benefit from a Trump presidency, is far from clear. Many of Mr. Trump's policy statements so far have been vague and open to interpretation, and he has been known to swerve on positions radically.

But because the U.S. is the world's biggest economy—and the biggest market for many of the things the rest of the world makes—executives and investors were scrambling early Wednesday to work out who might best be poised to profit from his win, or lose out.

For many investors and executives, a Clinton victory was expected to provide more immediate clarity about key business-related policy initiatives in a new administration. That is despite the fact that on the campaign trail, she has targeted big businesses—including pharmaceuticals firms—as ripe for scrutiny.

Mr. Trump, meanwhile, has been more outspoken on the campaign trail than Mrs. Clinton about the pitfalls of global trade deals, and has vowed to roll them back. That has spooked global executives who have pushed expanded global trade.

Underscoring the new uncertainty surrounding global business, Germany's industry federation BDI warned early Wednesday of "massive uncertainties in the economy" after the victory of Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election, and the business group called on the president-elect not to close off the U.S. from the rest of the world.

"Donald Trump is well advised not to shut off the U.S. economy from the world or else the uncertainty about the future course will lead to considerable negative effects on the global economy," BDI President Ulrich Grillo said. The U.S. is Germany's largest export market. Some 5,000 German firms have operations in the U.S., according to the BDI.

Specific reaction from company executives around the world has been muted so far. A group of CEOs in the U.S. issued a joint letter early Wednesday pledging to promote "healing and reconciliation."

In an open letter to President-elect Donald Trump, CEOs affiliated with the National Association of Manufacturers, a trade group in Washington, wrote, "we can be constructive—both when we agree and when we do not—if we can all approach challenging situations in good faith, guided by an unwavering commitment to a greater purpose."

The letter was organized by the National Association of Manufacturers, a major Washington trade group. The more than 1,100 signers included Dennis A. Muilenburg of Boeing Co., Wes Bush, CEO of Northrop Grumman Corp., David Taylor, CEO of Procter & Gamble Co. and Gregory Hayes of United Technologies Corp.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 09, 2016 05:25 ET (10:25 GMT)

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