European Stocks End On Mixed Note

FRANKFURT, Sept 12 (Bernama-dpa-AFX) -- European stocks closed on a mixed note on Wednesday, with investors digesting US consumer price inflation data and assessing the likely move of the Federal Reserve with regard to the size of interest rate cut next week, the German news agency (dpa) reported.

Investors now await the European Central Bank's monetary policy announcement on Thursday. The ECB is widely expected to lower interest rates for the second time this year.

The pan European Stoxx 600 edged down by 0.01 per cent. The UK's FTSE 100 ended lower by 0.15 per cent and France's CAC 40 declined by 0.14 per cent, while Germany's DAX gained 0.35 per cent. Switzerland's SMI fell by 0.35 per cent.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Poland, Russia, Sweden and Turkiye closed weak.

Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Spain ended higher.

In the UK market, Entain climbed by more than 4 per cent. ICG, Prudential, Endeavour Mining Plc, BT Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Next, Burberry Group, Rio Tinto, Natwest Group, Vodafone Group, Antofagasta, Melrose Industries and Reckitt Benckiser gained between 1 per cent and 2.3 per cent.

Rentokil Initial plunged by more than 20 per cent after a profit warning. The company said that despite some positive momentum in North American sales activity at the end of the second quarter, trading performance in July and August fell short of expectations.

Additionally, branch integration has caused minor disruptions to organic growth. Consequently, the company now anticipates Organic Revenue growth in North America of about 1 per cent for the second half of 2024.

Howden Joinery, Vistry Group, Mondi, Berkeley Group Holdings, Centrica, Ashtead Group, Coca-Cola, Diploma, Marks & Spencer, Persimmon and Smith (DS) ended lower by 1 per cent to 2 per cent.

In the German market, Commerzbank shares soared by nearly 17 per cent after Italian lender UniCredit took a 9 per cent shareholding in the German bank and said it will seek approval to potentially buy more. BMW and Porsche gained 3 per cent and 2.4 per cent, respectively.

Siemens Energy climbed by nearly 2 per cent and Adidas gained about 1.8 per cent. Infineon, Covestro and SAP also ended notably higher. Bayer closed down by more than 2 per cent. Deutsche Bank, Fresenius Medical Care, Puma, Zalando and Vonovia lost by 1.2 per cent to 2 per cent.

In the French market, Dassault Systemes gained by 2.25 per cent. Pernod Ricard, AXA, Legrand, Accor, BNP Paribas, Vivendi and TotalEnergies also ended higher. Edenred, L'Oreal, Unibail Rodamco, Eurofins Scientific, Sanofi, LVMH, Saint Gobain and Stellantis closed with sharp to moderate losses.

In European economic news, the UK economy unexpectedly stagnated in July as falls in production and construction was offset by an increase in services output, official data revealed.

Real gross domestic product showed nil growth for the second straight month, the Office for National Statistics reported. GDP was forecast to grow by 0.2 per cent. The 0.1 per cent rise in services output was offset by decreases of 0.8 per cent in production output and 0.4 per cent in construction output.

In the three months to July, GDP advanced by 0.5 per cent with strong contribution from services output. Services output gained by 0.6 per cent and construction climbed by 1.2 per cent, while production output was down by 0.1 per cent.

Data from the Labour Department showed US consumer price index rose by 0.2 per cent in August, matching the uptick seen in July as well as economist estimates.

However, core consumer prices, which exclude food and energy prices, climbed by 0.3 per cent in August after rising by 0.2 per cent in July. Economists had expected core prices to rise by another 0.2 per cent.

The Federal Reserve is still likely to lower interest rates next week, but the bigger than expected increase by core consumer prices is seen as reducing the chances the central bank lowers rates by 50 basis points.

Following the report, CME Group's FedWatch Tool is indicating an 83 per cent chance of a quarter point rate cut and just a 17 per cent chance of a half-point rate cut.

-- BERNAMA-dpa-AFX