European Stocks Close Broadly Lower

(RTTNews) - European stocks pared some early losses on Thursday but still ended the day's trading session mostly weak. Worries about trade tensions and tariff uncertainty, and reluctance to pick up stocks ahead of a long weekend contributed to the weakness in the markets.

Investors digested a slew of earnings updates and the European Central Bank's interest rate decision.

The ECB, which cut its rate by 25 basis points to 2.25%, warned of 'deteriorated' growth outlook due to trade tensions. "Most measures of underlying inflation suggest that inflation will settle at around the Governing Council's 2 percent medium-term target on a sustained basis," the ECB said.

"The euro area economy has been building up some resilience against global shocks, but the outlook for growth has deteriorated owing to rising trade tensions," the bank added.

The major European markets will remain closed on Friday and Monday, for Good Friday and Easter Monday, respectively.

The pan European Stoxx 600 edged down 0.13%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 settled flat, Germany's DAX closed lower by about 0.5% and France's CAC 40 ended 0.6% down. Switzerland's SMI climbed 0.54%.

Among other markets in Europe, Czech Republic, Poland and Turkiye closed higher. Iceland, Norway and Russia edged up marginally.

Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands and Sweden ended notably lower, while Austria, Belgium, Portugal and Spain edged down marginally.

In the UK market, Sainsbury (J) closed stronger by 3.55% after reporting profit before tax of 384 million pounds for the 52 weeks to 1 March 2025 compared to 277 million pounds, last year. Statutory EPS increased to 10.2 pence from 5.7 pence. The company's underlying profit before tax was 761 million pounds, up 8.6%. Underlying EPS increased to 22.7 pence from 21.6 pence. The Sainsbury Board has recommended a final dividend of 9.7 pence per share.

Rentokil Initial climbed about 5%. Pershing Square Holdings gained nearly 3.5%. JD Sports Fashion, Taylor Wimpey, Tesco, Entain, Land Securities, Marks & Spencer, Associated British Foods, Prudential, BP, Barratt Redrow and Londonmetric Property gained 1.5 to 3%.

Fresnillo ended down 5.55%. Melrose Industries, Polar Capital Technology, Spirax Group, Admiral Group and BAE Systems ended lower by 1.5 to 2.3%.

In the German market, Siemens Energy zoomed nearly 11% on strong earnings and encouraging guidance. Siemens Energy posted second-quarter revenue of 9.96 billion euros ($11.32 billion), higher than an expected revenue of 9.27 billion euros.

The company hiked its full-year guidance, saying it expects comparable revenue growth between 13-15% from previously anticipated 8-10% and a profit margin before special items between 4-6% from previously expected 3-5%

Puma gained about 4%, while Vonovia, Zalando, Munich RE and Volkswagen posted moderate gains.

Fresenius Medical Care drifted down more than 5.5%. SAP, Sartorius, Heidelberg Materials, Qiagen, Merck, Commerzbank, Daimler Truck Holding, Deutsche Post, Brenntag and Fresenius lost 1 to 3%.

In the French market, Unibail Rodamco, AXA, Publicis Groupe and Vivendi gained 1 to 2%.

Hermes International closed more than 3% down. The luxury fashion house reported a rise in revenue for the first quarter, helped by growth in all the geographical areas. For the three-month period, the company posted revenue of 4.129 billion euros, higher than 3.805 billion euros registered for the same period last year.

Airbus Group, Saint Gobain, Teleperformance, Eurofins Scientific, Dassault Systemes, Thales, Capgemini, Societe Generale, BNP Paribas, STMicroElectronics, Safran and Essilor lost 1 to 3%.

In economic news, data from the Federal Statistical Office DeStatis showed producer prices in Germany unexpectedly dropped by 0.2% year-on-year in March, reversing a 0.7% rise in February. It marked the first decline in producer prices since last October.

On a monthly basis, the PPI fell by 0.7%, marking the fourth straight month of decline, and the steepest falls since December 2023, following a 0.2% drop in the previous month.