European Stocks Close Broadly Higher

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed broadly higher on Friday with some of the major markets in the region settling at multi-week highs amid easing fears about the outlook for U.S. economic growth, and optimism about an interest rate cut by the Fed next month.

The U.K. market underperformed and snapped a five-day winning streak. The British pound strengthened against other major currencies after official data showed that U.K. retail sales volume rebounded in July - dashing investor hopes of a Q4 Bank of England rate cut.

Most the markets posted solid gains for the week.

The pan European Stoxx 600 ended 0.31% up. Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 climbed 0.77% and 0.35%, respectively. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended down 0.43%, while Switzerland's SMI gained 0.32%.

Among other markets in Europe, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden closed higher.

Denmark, Russia and Turkiye ended weak, while Austria, Belgium, Finland and Netherlands closed flat.

In the UK market, Entain climbed about 2.75%, and Burberry Group gained 2.26%. Auto Trader Group, Rentokil Initial, Melrose Industries, Kingfisher, Endeavour Mining, Natwest Group, Beazley, Lloyds Banking Group, Pershing Square Holdings, Prudential and Smith (DS) gained 0.7 to 1.6%.

RightMove, Berkeley Group Holdings, Fresnillo, Ashtead Group, Vistry Group, Sage Group, Diageo, Persimmon, Segro, Whitbread, Haleon, Associated British Foods, Unite Group, Taylor Wimpey, Glencore, Barrat Developments and Severn Trent lost 1 to 2.6%.

In the German market, Bayer soared more than 10%. The stock gained after a US appeals court ruled that federal law protects the company from a lawsuit claiming its Roundup weed killer causes cancer.

E.ON, Munich RE, Covestro, Deutsche Bank, Allianz, Hannover Rueck, Zalando, BASF, Fresenius, Mercedes-Benz, Deutsche Boerse and Deutsche Post gained 1 to 2%.

Merck, Puma, Adidas, Continental, Infineon and Brenntag ended weak.

In the French market, STMicroElectronics climbed more than 3.5%. Accor, Eurofins Scientific, Publicis Groupe, BNP Paribas and Safran gained 1 to 1.7%.

Pernod Ricard, Stellantis, Kering and Legrand closed weak.

On the economic front, the euro area trade surplus surged in June driven by the increase in surplus for machineries and vehicles, chemicals and other manufactured goods. The trade surplus rose to EUR 22.3 billion in June from EUR 14.0 billion in May, data published by Eurostat showed on Friday. This was well above economists' forecast of EUR 13.3 billion.

UK retail sales volume rebounded in July as summer discounting and the European football Championship boosted department stores and sports equipment stores sales. Retail sales increased 0.5% on a monthly basis in July, following a revised 0.9% fall in June. Economists had forecast sales to grow 0.6%.

Switzerland's industrial production increased unexpectedly and sharply in the second quarter by 7.3% year-over-year, reversing a 2% fall in the first quarter. Further, this was the biggest increase since the first quarter of 2021, when production had risen the same 7.3%.