European Stocks Close Slightly Lower After Volatile Session

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed slightly weak after a volatile session on Wednesday as interest rate concerns and rising bond yields continued to weigh on the markets.

Weak data from the European region, data showing the U.S. service sector growth slowed in September, and private sector employment grew less then expected last month, weighed as well.

The pan European Stoxx 600 ended 0.14% down. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 dropped 0.77% and France's CAC 40 ended flat, while Germany's DAX edged up 0.1%. Switzerland's SMI ended 0.07% down.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed weak.

Denmark, Greece, Netherlands and Poland ended higher.

In the UK market, Royal Mail, Entain, BAE Systems, BP, Fresnillo and Whitbread ended lower by 3 to 4%.

Imperial Brands, Associated British Foods, Barratt Developments, ITV, Ashtead, Glencore, Royal Dutch Shell, NEXT and Rio Tinto lost 2 to 2.6%.

IAG, Tesco, Aviva, Just Eat Takeaway.com, J Sainsbury, Relx, Smurfit Kappa Group gained 2 to 4.5%.

In the German market, Fresenius Medical Care shed about 4%. Henkel, Brenntag, Zalando, Siemens Energy and Fresenius lost 1 to 2%.

Infineon rallied about 4%. Symrise gained nearly 2%. Siemens Heathineers, E.ON, Bayer and Adidas also ended notably higher.

In Paris, TotalEnergies and Thales both ended nearly 2%. Legrand, Alstom, Renault, ArcelorMittal and Carrefour also closed weak.

Capgemini, STMicroElectronics, Orange, Hermes International, Publicis Groupe, Edenred and LVMH gained 1 to 2.3%.

In the Swiss market, shares of pharma major Novartis AG plunged 4.8% percent after an announcement from the company that it has completed the spin-off of its generics and biosimilars business Sandoz through a dividend-in-kind distribution to holders of Novartis shares and American Depositary Receipts. Sandoz shares tanked about 17% on debut.

In economic news, Eurozone retail sales declined more than expected in August, falling by 1.2% on a monthly basis, slower than the 0.1 percent fall in July, data from Eurostat showed. This was worse than economists' forecast of 0.3% drop.

Eurozone producer prices slid 11.5% from a year ago in August, Eurostat said. In July, producer prices fell 7.6%.

Eurozone private sector ended the third quarter with another contraction as weak demand weighed on output across the manufacturing and services sectors, final results of the purchasing managers' survey from S&P Global showed on Wednesday. The HCOB final composite output index advanced to 47.2 in September from 46.7 in the previous month. Moreover, the score was slightly above the flash 47.1.

The UK service sector contracted the most since January largely due to subdued demand and cutbacks to non-essential spending among clients, final survey results published by S&P Global revealed on Wednesday. The Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply final services Purchasing Managers' Index posted 49.3 in September, down from 49.5 in August.