European Markets Finish Higher On Wednesday

(RTTNews) - The major European stock markets opened higher on Wednesday and spent the entire session in the green, closing near daily high for the second straight day.

European stocks traded at record highs on Wednesday after Anthropic announced new partnerships, helping ease artificial-intelligence disruption concerns.

The AI startup launched new updates to Claude Cowork that allow companies to integrate the productivity tool into a host of enterprise apps.

Germany's DAX was up 189.69 points or 0.76 percent to finish at 25,175.94, while the FTSE in London jumped 125.82 points or 1.18 percent to close at 10,806.41 and the CAC 40 in France added 39.86 points or 0.47 percent to end at 8,559.07.

In Germany, Beiersdorf plummeted 3.69 percent, while RWE surged 3.19 percent, Siemens Energy spiked 2.05 percent, Deutsche Bank rallied 1.53 percent, Deutsche Telekom jumped 1.02 percent, Infineon Technologies climbed 0.85 percent, Deutsche Borse slumped 0.77 percent, Deutsche Post added 0.67 percent and Zalando gained 0.54 percent.

In London, Haleon tumbled 6.85 percent, while Experian spiked 3.94 percent, Centrica vaulted 2.91 percent, Prudential expanded 2.49 percent, Tesco slumped 1.80 percent, easyJet sank 1.76 percent, Vodafone Group increased 1.29 percent, British American Tobacco was up 1.23 percent, Rightmove dipped 0.17 percent and Rolls-Royce was unchanged.

In France, Pernod Ricard cratered 7.93 percent, while Societe Generale soared 3.17 percent, Credit Agricole rallied 2.76 percent, Engie jumped 2.08 percent, BNP Paribas collected 2.00 percent, Worldline improved 1.44 percent, Vivendi added 0.51 percent, Danone gained 0.50 percent and Sanofi rose 0.22 percent.

In economic news, Eurozone inflation slowed in January due to the sharp fall in energy prices, data from Eurostat showed Wednesday. The harmonized index of consumer prices rose 1.7 percent on a yearly basis in January, in line with estimate released on February 4. This followed December's 2.0 percent increase.

The German economy expanded 0.3 percent in the fourth quarter after stagnating in the third quarter, final data from the Federal Statistical Office showed Wednesday. On a yearly basis, Germany's GDP growth improved to 0.4 percent in the fourth quarter, as estimated, from 0.3 percent in the preceding period.

French consumer confidence improved slightly in February as households' assessment about future financial situation as well as their standard of living strengthened, survey results from the statistical office INSEE showed Wednesday. The consumer sentiment index rose slightly to 91 from 90 in the prior month. The index was expected to remain unchanged at 90.