European Stocks Close Lower On Geopolitical Crisis, Weak Economic Data

(RTTNews) - European stocks fell on Monday as rising geopolitical crisis in the Middle East, concerns about the outlook for interest rates and another batch of disappointing eurozone economic data hurt sentiment.

Investors chose safe-haven assets such as the dollar, bonds and the bullion after Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a large-scale attack on Israel on Saturday.

Israel responded with its heaviest ever bombardment of Gaza, resulting in the death of several hundreds of people.

The pan European stoxx 600 ended down 0.26%. Germany's DAX dropped 0.67% and France's CAC 40 declined 0.55%, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged down 0.03%. Switzerland's SMI ended lower by 0.14%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye ended weak.

Norway, Poland, Portugal and Russia closed higher.

Airines shares dropped after flights to Israel were suspended and jet fuel prices surged. Shares of energy firms rallied on rising oil prices.

In the UK market, Croda International tumbled more than 7%. IAG, TUI, Easyjet and Carnival lost 5.5 to 6.1%.

Next, Royal Mail, Hargreaves Lansdown, Whitbread, Halma, IHG, Standard Chartered, Schrodders, Barclays and Rolls-Royce Holdings lost 1.7 to 4.3%.

BAE Systems rallied more than 4.5%. BP, Royal Dutch Shell, Imperial Brands, Vodafone, National Grid, Fresnillo, Compass, Glencore, BT and Centrica gained 1 to 3%.

Metro Bank Holdings soared 11% after reports that the Bank of England's Prudential Regulation Authority has approached a number of big U.K. lenders in the past few days, including NatWest, Santander UK and JP Morgan Chase, to see if they had any interest in taking over the British lender.

In the German market, Daimler Truck Holding ended more than 3% down. Infineon, Continental, Puma, BASF, HeidelbergCement, Qiagen, Deutsche Post, Bayer, Siemens, Porsche, Deutsche Bank, Commerzban, BMW and SAP lost 1 to 2.3%.

Adidas climbed 4.3%. Fresenius Medical Care, E.ON, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens Energy and RWE gained 1 to 1.6%.

In Paris, Worldline declined more than 4%. LVMH ended lower by about 2.6%. Schneider Electric, Credit Agricole, L'Oreal, Eurofins Scientific, Hermes International, Alstom, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale lost 1.4 to 2%.

Thales surged more than 4.5%. Danone rallied 2.7%, TotalEnergies gained about 1.7% and Engie advanced 1%.

On the economic front, Germany's industrial production continued to decline in August on weak construction and energy output but the overall pace of contraction softened, data from Destatis showed on Monday.

Industrial output in Germany decreased 0.2% from July, when it dropped by revised 0.6%. Production was forecast to fall 0.3% after July's initially estimated decline of 0.8%.

Eurozone investor sentiment deteriorated in October reflecting the recessionary trends in the currency bloc, especially in Germany, while expectations among investors improved but it would be premature to declare a turnaround, survey data from the behavioral research institute Sentix showed Monday. The investor confidence index dropped to -21.9 in October from -21.5 in September.