European Stocks Close Lower On Rising Bond Yields, Geopolitical Tensions

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed lower on Thursday, hurt by the escalation in tensions in the Middle East, and higher bond yields. Investors also digested a mixed batch of corporate results.

The pan European Stoxx 600 fell 1.19%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 declined 1.17%, Germany's DAX ended 0.33% down, and France's CAC 40 declined 0.64%, while Switzerland's SMI dropped 2.13%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed sharp to moderately lower.

Russia ended higher, while Greece and Iceland closed flat.

The London Stock Exchange limited trading to the

The London Stock Exchange, which limited trading to FTSE 100, FTSE 250 and IOB securities just over 30 minutes before the end of the session today, said it was investigating an "incident."

"Orders in all other instruments currently halted will now be expired," it said in an update late afternoon.

In the UK market, Rentokil Initial plunged nearly 19%. RightMove tumbled 14.3%. Mondi ended 6.1% down. Hargreaves Lansdown shed 0.6% after new client growth slowed during the first quarter.

Ferguson, Flutter Entertainment, ITV, Auto Trader Group, Smurfit Kappa Group, Ds Smith, BAE Systems, GlaxoSmithKline, EasyJet, British Land Company and Schrodders lost 2.4 to 3.5%.

Admiral Group and Spirax-Sarco Engineering both gained nearly 2.5%. Halma advanced almost 1%, and J Sainsbury advanced 0.6%.

In the German market, Vonovia, Continental and Infineon lost 5%, 4.4% and 3.4%, respectively. Siemens Healthineers, BMW, Qiagen, Zalando, Volkswagen, Daimler Truck Holding, Puma, Siemens Energy, HeidelbergCement, Deutsche Post and Brenntag ended lower by 1.5 to 3%.

SAP rallied more than 5%. Merck gained about 3.1% after the company said it expects to return to growth during fiscal 2024, and continued growth also beyond 2025.

Sartorius lost more than 2% after unveiling financial results for the first nine months of the year. RWE and Covestro also declined sharply.

In Paris, Renault dropped more than 7% after currency depreciations in Turkey and Argentina weighed heavily on the pace of sales growth in the third quarter.

Stellantis shed about 3.7%, Eurofins Scientific, Edenred, Sanofi, STMicroElectronics and Thales ended lower by 2.3 to 3%, while Saint Gobain declined nearly 2%.

Pernod Ricard climbed 4.8% after the spirts maker forecast higher sales in fiscal year 2023-24.

Alstom, Engie, L'Oreal, ArcelorMittal, Teleperformane, LVMH and WorldLine posted modest gains.

On the economic front, French manufacturers' sentiment weakened slightly in October reflecting the deterioration in personal production expectations, survey results from the statistical office INSEE showed on Thursday.

The manufacturing sentiment index dropped to 98 in October from 99 in September. The score was forecast to remain unchanged at 99.0.

The euro area current account surplus increased in August driven by the sharp rise in the visible trade surplus, the European Central Bank reported Thursday.

The current account balance showed a surplus of EUR 28 billion compared to a EUR 21 billion surplus in the previous month.

Switzerland's trade surplus surged in the third quarter on recovering exports, data from the Federal Customs Administration showed on Thursday.

The trade balance registered a surplus of CHF 10.54 billion, which was above CHF 9.49 billion logged in the second quarter. In the same period last year, the surplus was CHF 8.26 billion.

In real terms, exports rebounded 0.8%, following a 1.6% drop a quarter ago. At the same time, the decline in imports softened to 0.6% from 3.2%.