European Stocks Close Higher For 3rd Straight Session

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed higher on Tuesday, extending gains to a third session, reacting positively to news about China cutting quarantine time for international travelers, and the European Central Bank's President Christine Lagarde's comments that played down fears of a recession in the euro zone.

"We have markedly revised down our forecasts for growth in the next two years. But we are still expecting positive growth rates due to the domestic buffers against the loss of growth momentum," Lagarde said at the Sintra Forum.

Lagarde reaffirmed a 25bps rate-hike in July and more aggressive tightening in September in case of persisting or deteriorating inflation situation.

The pan European Stoxx 600 gained 0.27%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 climbed 0.9%, Germany's DAX advanced 0.35% and France's CAC 40 surged 0.64%, while Switzerland's SMI fell 0.89%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Spain ended higher.

Denmark, Ireland, Netherlands, Russia, Sweden and Turkey closed weak, while Greece ended flat.

Survey results from the market research group Gfk showed Germany's consumer confidence dropped to a new record low in July as consumers see the risk of the economy slipping to a recession.

The consumer confidence index fell to -27.4 in July from revised -26.2 in June. The score was forecast to fall to -27.6.

France's consumer confidence weakened for the sixth straight month in June to reach its lowest level in nearly nine years, monthly survey results from the statistical office Insee revealed. The consumer confidence index dropped to 82 in June from 85 in May.

In the UK market, Rolls-Royce Holdings rallied 6.5%. Prudential surged 4.3%. BT Group, BAE Systems, Harbour Energy, Shell, Unite Group, Whitbread, Standard Chartered, British Land Company, DCC, Melrose Industries, Centrica and Rio Tinto gained 2 to 4%.

Severn Trent ended nearly 4% down. Aveva Group, Flutter Entertainment, Entain, Halma, B&M European Value Retail, ICP, M&G, RightMove and Rentokil Initial shed 1 to 3%.

In the French market, Valeo surged more than 4% after the car parts company won a major contract from BMW.

Renault gained 2.3% amid reports of Nissan rejecting to designate the French automaker as the parent company of Nissan.

Safran, Faurecia, Atos, Airbus Group, Air France-KLM, Kering, Thales and Vinci gained 2 to 5%. Unibail Rodamco, Kering, Orange, LVMH, Carrefour and Pernod Ricard also ended sharply higher.

CapGemini drifted down more than 2%. L'Oreal and STMicroElectronics also closed weak, albeit with less pronounced losses.

In Germany, MTU Aero Engines climbed more than 4%. Porsche Automobil, Continental, Munich RE, RWE, Brenntag, Allianz, Bayer, BMW, Deutsche Telekom and Covestro gained 1 to 3%.

Volkswagen gained nearly 1.5%. The German automaker is close to selling a minority stake in its U.S. electric-vehicle charge business to an arm of Siemens, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Puma, Zalando, Symrise, SAP, Adidas and Merck ended weak.