European Shares Recover After Early Dip

(RTTNews) - European stocks were moving in a narrow range on Monday, as investors braced for a busy week of corporate earnings and a policy meeting of the U.S. Federal Reserve, with economists expecting a 75-bps point hike to combat inflation.

Closer home, hawkish ECB policymaker Robert Holzmann told the Austrian public broadcaster ORF on Sunday that the Governing Council will consider the economic landscape across the euro zone before deciding on the next tightening step in September.

The European Central Bank raised interest rates by a bigger-than-expected 50 basis points last week, marking its first hike in 11 years.

In economic releases, survey results from Ifo Institute showed that Germany's business confidence deteriorated more than expected in July.

The business confidence index came in at 88.6 in July as both current assessment and expectations of firms deteriorated in the month. The reading was forecast to fall to 90.2 from 92.2 in June.

The pan European Stoxx 600 was marginally lower at 425.48 after rising 0.3 percent on Friday to close at its highest level since June 10.

The German DAX, France's CAC 40 index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 all were up around 0.3 percent, after having opened on a subdued note earlier in the day.

French telecom firm Orange rose nearly 2 percent after it signed a binding agreement with MasMovil to combine their businesses in Spain.

Volkswagen AG shares tumbled 2.5 percent. The German automaker has appointed Oliver Blume takes over as new Chairman with effect as of 1 September 2022.

Automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler was gaining 1.2 percent after it agreed to buy Ewellix Group from Triton Fund V for 582 million euros.

Spain's Telefonica jumped 2.3 percent after it agreed to sell a slice of its rural fibre network in Spain to a consortium for around 1 billion euros ($1.02 billion).

Dutch medical equipment firm Philips plummeted 11 percent after missing its Q2 forecasts by a significant margin.