European Markets Close On Mixed Note

(RTTNews) - European stocks ended mixed after a somewhat choppy session on Friday as investors closely followed the developments on the geopolitical front in addition to digesting the latest batch of regional economic data and corporate news.

Exchange of hostilities between Iran and the U.S., and concerns about AI valuations hurt investor sentiment. Worries about inflation and fears of possible monetary tightening by central banks weighed as well.

US President Donald Trump said Iran had requested to continue talks and that the US had agreed. However, he reiterated that the June ceasefire was "over."

The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.04%. The UK's FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 gained 0.24% and 0.15%, respectively. Germany's DAX ended down 0.2%, while Switzerland's SMI closed 0.14% up.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Poland, Spain and Türkiye closed higher.

Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Russia and Sweden ended weak. Iceland and Netherlands closed flat.

In the UK market, Vodafone Group soared nearly 13% after UAE telecoms operator E& announced it would sell its entire stake in the British carrier to Vega.

Shares of EasyJet zoomed 14.5% after the airline agreed in principle to a £5.7bn takeover proposal from U.S. private equity giant Apollo Global Management.

Recruitment specialist Hays surged 20% after saying its annual operating profit would land at the top of analyst forecasts.

Entain and JD Sports Fashion closed up by nearly 4% and 3%, respectively. Spirax Group climbed 2.5%.

Pershing Square Holdings, Relx, 3i Group, Antofagasta, LSED, BT Group, AutoTrader Group, Associated British Foods, Croda International, Airtel Africa, Compass Group, Bunzl, Prudential, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, Land Securities and Weir Group gained 1.3%-2%.

St. James's Place tanked 8.6%. AstraZeneca closed nearly 4% down. Hiscox, Rentokil Initial and Babcock International shed 1.6%-2.2%. Imperial Brands and Admiral Group lost a little over 1%.

In the German market, Deutsche Telekom gained more than 3% following a rating upgrade from JP Morgan.

Heidelberg Materials climbed 2.8% and Commerzbank moved up nearly 2%. Beiersdorf, Deutsche Bank, Continental and Brenntag gained 1.3%-1.5%.

Siemens Energy shed 2.6%. Rheinmetall closed nearly 2% down, while EON, Infineon and Bayer ended lower by 1.1%-1.4%.

In the French market, ArcelorMittal jumped about 6.5% after JPMorgan upgraded the stock's rating to 'Neutral' from 'Underweight' and raised its price target to EUR46.10 from EUR42.70.

Teleperformance and Stellantis gained about 3.7% each. Renault, Saint-Gobain, Michelin, Publicis Groupe, Societe Generale, Kering, Hermes International, Carrefour and Pernod Ricard gained 1%-2%.

Thales, Safran, STMicroelectronics, Veolia Environment, Engie, TotalEnergies and LVMH shed 0.6%-1.6%.

In economic news, final data from Destatis showed Germany's inflation slowed to a four-month low in June, as initially estimated.

Consumer price inflation came in at 2.3% in June, slower than May's 2.6%. This was the lowest rate since February and matched the estimate published on June 30.

Similarly, EU harmonized inflation weakened to 2.4%, in line with estimate, from 2.7% a month ago.

Core inflation that excludes prices of food and energy held steady at 2.5% in June.

On a monthly basis, consumer prices dropped 0.3% in June after falling 0.2% in May. The harmonized index of consumer prices slid 0.2% following a 0.1% fall. Both rates came in line with estimates.

Data from statistical office INSEE showed the annual inflation rate in France eased to 1.8% in June from an over two-year high of 2.4% in May, confirming preliminary estimates.

Core inflation slowed to 1.0% from 1.5%. On a monthly basis, consumer prices fell 0.3%, the first drop since January 2026.

Meanwhile, the EU-harmonised CPI also rose 2.0% year-on-year, down from 2.8% in May, while falling 0.3% on the month.