European Stocks Close Weak

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed lower on Thursday as the mood remained largely cautious with investors closely following geopolitical news, digesting tech giant Nvidia's earnings, and some crucial economic data from the U.S.

The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.2%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 closed 0.42% down, and Germany's DAX edged down 0.03%. France's CAC 40 gained 0.24%. Switzerland's SMI edged up 0.1%.

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

Denmark, Ireland and Spain closed higher, while Russia, Sweden and Turkiye ended flat.

In the UK market, Anglo American Plc and JD Sports Fashion closed higher by about 3% and 2.8%, respectively. Weir Group, Rio Tinto, DCC, EasyJet, Antofagasta, Spirax Group and Pershing Square Holdings also ended notably higher.

Aviva ended down 3.1%. Land Securities, Endeavour Mining, Relx, LondonMetric Property, British American Tobacco, Auto Trader Group, Centrica, Natwest Group, Next and Coca-Cola HBC lost 1 to 2.2%.

In the German market, Siemens, Sartorius, Siemens Energy and Infineon gained 1 to 1.7%.

Automotive supplier Continental climbed 1.7% after announcing the sale of its ContiTech business area Original Equipment Solutions to Regent.

Shares of electrolysis specialist Thyssenkrupp Nucera jumped nearly 3% after Australia's Progressive Green Solutions selected it as the preferred supplier of 1.4 GW electrolyzers for the Mid-West Green Iron project.

Qiagen lost about 4.25%. Vonovia closed 2.3% down. Bayer, E.ON, RWE and Deutsche Telekom also ended notably lower.

In the French market, Renault rallied 3.7%. STMicroElectronics, Kering, Schneider Electric, Vinci and LVMH gained 1.2 to 2.5%.

Pernod Ricard climbed nearly 1.5% after posting a smaller-than-expected 3% fall in annual organic revenue. Pernod Ricard reported group share of net profit of 1.626 billion euros for the full year, 10% higher than 1.476 billion euros in the previous year.

Sales for the year was 6% down at 10.959 billion euros from 11.598 billion euros. The company's Board has proposed a dividend of 4.70 euros per share.

Teleperformance jumped 2.3%. Vivendi, Sanofi, EssilorLuxxotica, Danone and Edenred lost 0.5 to 1.5%.

A report from the European Commission showed the economic sentiment indicator in the Euro Area edged down 0.5 points to 95.2 in August, due to lower confidence in services, construction and consumer activity.

The Euro Area consumer confidence indicator eased by 0.8 points to -15.5 in August 2025, the lowest in four months, from -14.7 in July, in line with preliminary estimates.

A report from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association, or ACEA, said Europe's new car sales rebounded in July on strong demand for battery electric and plug-in hybrid cars.

Car registrations in the European Union advanced 7.4% year-on-year in July, offsetting June's 7.3% decrease.

Data showed an annual rise of 39.1% for battery-electric and 14.3% for hybrid-electric cars sales, while plug-in-hybrid electric recorded its fifth consecutive month of continuous strong growth with a 56.9% increase.

Among largest economies, overall demand in cars in Germany grew 11.1%. Similarly, Spain reported a robust growth of 17.1%. Meanwhile, France registered a 7.7% decrease and Italy logged a 5.1% drop in registrations.