European Stocks Close Broadly Lower Ahead Of Central Banks Policy Announcements

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed lower on Wednesday with investors reacting to a slew of earnings updates and assessing the situation in the Middle East, while awaiting the interest rate decision from the Federal Reserve later in the day, and the monetary policy announcements from the Bank of England and the European Central Bank on Thursday.

Investors also weighed the potential impact of the United Arab Emirates' shock exit from the OPEC oil cartel.

The pan European Stoxx 600 fell 0.6%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended down 1.16%, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 closed lower by 0.27% and 0.39%, respectively. Switzerland's SMI finished with a loss of 0.88%.

Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Türkiye closed weak.

Austria, Finland, Ireland and Norway ended higher, while Poland closed flat.

In the UK market, GSK drifted down 5.4% despite delivering strong Q1 performance and affirming its 2026 guidance. The company's core operating profit for the quarter ending March 31 climbed 10% on a constant currency basis to £2.65 billion, but the stock fell due to the fact that a significant part of the jump was due to legal settlement provisions rather than operational performance.

St. James's Place fell 6%. Persimmon closed lower by about 4.4%. Fresnillo, Howden Joinery Group, Berkeley Group Holdings, Burberry Group, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Rolls-Royce Holdings lost 3%-4%.

Haleon ended down by about 3.1%. The company announced that it recorded revenue of GBP 2.857 billion, higher than GBP 2.853 billion in the same period last year. Revenue from Europe, the Middle East & Africa, and Latin America stood at GBP 1.240 billion as against GBP 1.188 billion in the previous year.

DCC soared 9.3%. Intertek Group climbed 3.7% and Mondi gained 2.6%. Barclays moved by a little over 1%.

RightMove, Lion Finance, Scottish Mortgage and Metlen Energy & Metals also ended notably higher.

In the German market, Siemens Healthineers, Hannover RE, Munich RE, Merck, Beiersdorf, E.ON, Qiagen, Deutsche Post and SAP ended down by 2%-4%.

Deutsche Bank drifted lower by nearly 2% despite reporting an 8% increase in profit in its first quarter, compared to a year ago. Looking ahead for fiscal 2026, the lender noted that first-quarter performance in line with expectations, providing a solid step-off point for the bank's full-year 2026 revenue ambition of 33 billion euros.

Adidas moved up nearly 8.5% thanks to strong quarterly earnings. The company's net income in the first quarter increased by 12.6% compared to a year ago.

Scout 24 climbed almost 7% after the company said its first-quarter net income rose 37%, helped by higher revenues and gains from foreign-currency effects.

Infineon rallied 5.5%. Symrise, Deutsche Telekom, Fresenius and Siemens Energy also closed notably higher.

In the French market, Eurofins Scientific ended down 3.7%. Pernod Ricard, Veolia Environment, L'Oreal, Danone, Vinci, AXA, Kering, Engie, LVMH, Unibail Rodamco, Saint Gobain and BNP Parinas lost 1%-3%.

Airbus climbed more than 5%. Capgemini and STMicroelectronics both gained nearly 3.5%. Teleperformance, Legrand, Bureau Veritas and Dassault Systemes also ended with strong gains.

In economic news, a report from the European Commission said the Eurozone Economic Sentiment Indicator (ESI) fell for the third consecutive month to 93.0 in April 2026, hitting its lowest level since November 2020 and missing market expectations of 95.2, amid growing concerns over the economic outlook due to the Iran war.