European Stocks Close Mixed As Investors Weigh Data, Rate Hike Prospects

(RTTNews) - European stocks ended mixed on Thursday with investors assessing the latest batch of economic data from Europe and the U.S., and weighing the prospects of further policy tightening by major central banks.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Thursday that the US central bank would deliver more interest rates hikes by the end of the year in its prolonged fight against high inflation.

"Inflation pressures continue to run high, and the process of getting inflation back down to 2% has a long way to go," Powell said in a speech at the Banco de Espana conference on financial stability in Madrid, Spain.

Investors also reacted to some corporate news, and activity was mostly stock specific.

The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.13%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended 0.38% down, and Germany's DAX ended slightly lower. France's CAC 40 climbed 0.36%, while Switzerland's SMI ended 0.12% down.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed higher.

Czech Republic, Finland, Iceland and Portugal ended weak, while Ireland and Netherlands closed roughly flat.

In the UK market, Barclays and Ocado Group both ended higher by about 2%. 3I Group and Standard Chartered gained 1.54% and 1.35%, respectively. Glencore, Vodafone Group and HSBC Holding gained 0.9 to 1%.

B&M European Value Retail tumbled more than 6.5%. Rentokil, Rolls-Royce Holdings, WPP, Tesco and Severn Trent ended lower by 3.5 to 4.8%.

United Utilities, Convatec, Unite Group, Burberry Group, Persimmon, RS Group and Segro also declined sharply.

In the German market, Porsche gained 2.7%. Commerzbank, Infineon and Deutsche Bank ended higher by 1.5 to 1.7%, while BMW climbed 1.1%.

Vonovia, Covestro, Brenntag and Siemens lost 1.4 to 2.6%.

In Paris, Renault rallied about 5%. The company lifted its annual operating margin outlook following the success of its recent launches.

Engie gained 4.2% and Stellantis climbed 3.6%. Orange, Societe Generale, Teleperformance, BNP Paribas, Hermes International, Credit Agricole, L'Oreal, Thales and Bouygues gained 1 to 2.3%.

Essilor fell 3%. Capgemini, Eurofins Scientific, Publicis Groupe and Sanofi lost 1 to 1.6%.

On the economic front, data from Bank of England revealed earlier in the day that British lenders approved 50,524 mortgages in May, up from a revised 49,020 in April.

A measure of Eurozone economic sentiment fell from 96.4 to 95.3 in June, slightly below expectation of 96.0.

After slowing to a 14-month low, Germany's consumer price inflation accelerated in June on higher services cost, flash data from Destatis revealed on Thursday.

Consumer prices increased 6.4% year-on-year in June, following a 6.1% rise in May. Prices were expected to gain 6.3%.

Excluding food and energy, core inflation advanced to 5.8% from 5.4% in the previous month.