European Markets Close Mostly Higher Ahead Of Central Bank Policy Meetings

(RTTNews) - The markets in Europe closed mostly higher on Monday, although the UK market underperformed and settled slightly lower. Investors digested a batch of regional economic data, and looked ahead to the monetary policy announcements from the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England the Bank of Japan due later in the week.

The Fed, scheduled to announce its policy decision on Wednesday, is expected to lower interest rate by 25 basis points. The BoE and the BoJ are likely to hold rates unchanged.

The French market gained despite Fitch cutting France's long-term credit rating, citing rising debt and political instability.

The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.42%. Germany's DAX gained 0.21% and France's CAC 40 closed 0.92% higher, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged down by 0.07%. Switzerland's SMI closed down by 0.41%.

Among other markets in Europe, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed higher.

Belgium, Greece and Russia ended weak, while Czech Republic and Finland closed flat.

In the UK market, Sainsbury (J) closed nearly 3.5% up, after the company confirmed that it has ended talks to sell Argos to JD. Com, citing unfavourable terms. It is now expected that new suitors will emerge to acquire Argos.

Centrica climbed more than 4%. Segro gained about 3.4%. Endeavour Mining, Marks & Spencer, Antofagasta, Lloyds Banking Group, Beazley, ICG, Fresnill, JD Sports Fashion, BAE Systems and Land Securities Group gained 1.6 to 2.7%.

AstraZeneca drifted down 3.2%. Airtel Africa, BT Group, GSK, Convatec Group, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Bunzl, Haleon, Smith & Nephew, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Diageo, Compass Group and Howden Joinergy lost 1 to 2%.

In the German market, Infineon, Siemens Energy, Rheinmetall, Sartorius and Zalando gained 2.5 to 3%. Puma, Commerzbank, Porsche and E.ON also ended notably higher.

SAP closed down 2.8%. Bayer, Symrise, Qiagen, Fresenius Medical Care and Covestro lost 1 to 2%.

In the French market, Kering rallied nearly 6%. Thales climbed by about 4.7%, and STMicroElectronics gained nearly 4%. Societe Generale, LVMH, Stellantis, L'Oreal, Credit Agricole, Airbus, Hermes International, BNP Paribas, Bouygues, Engie, Renault and Safran gained 1 to 3%.

Edenred ended down 4.4%. Capgemini , Dassault Systemes, Sanofi and Eurofins Scientific lost 1 to 2.2%.

In economic news, Germany's wholesale price inflation accelerated in August on higher food and non-ferrous ores, data from Destatis showed. The wholesale price index posted a 0.7% annual growth after rising 0.5% in July.

Month-on-month, wholesale prices were down unexpectedly by 0.6%, which was faster than the 0.1% drop seen in July and marked the second consecutive fall. Prices were forecast to rise 0.2%.

The euro area trade surplus declined in July as exports registered only a moderate growth, data from Eurostat showed.

The trade surplus fell to EUR 12.4 billion in July from EUR 18.5 billion in the previous year. Nonetheless, the surplus was above June's level of EUR 8 billion.

The annual growth in exports halved to 0.4% from 0.8% in June. At the same time, imports advanced 3.1%, after rising 6.8% a month ago.

The decline of EUR 6.1 billion in the trade surplus was mainly due to chemicals and related products, which experienced a decline in surplus to EUR 17.4 billion from EUR 23.8 billion.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the trade surplus rose to EUR 12.1 billion in July from EUR 7.9 billion in June. The improvement was primarily driven by increases in the surpluses of chemicals and related products, Eurostat said.

UK house prices dropped in September after several months of muted growth as competitive pricing became more vital in the south, the property website Rightmove said Monday.

Average asking prices edged down 0.1% from the previous year in September. The fall was driven by London and the south, as the south underperformed the rest of region.

The number of homes coming for sale in the south increased 9% on 2024, compared with 2% elsewhere. It took an average of five days longer to find a buyer.

Nonetheless, overall the number of sales being agreed was 4% ahead of this time last year.