European Stocks Rise On Oil Decline, Middle East Peace Hopes

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed higher on Friday as lower oil prices and bond yields amid renewed hopes about an end to the Middle East conflict and potential reopening of the Strait of Hormuz helped underpin sentiment.

Brent crude futures front-month contract fell to a low of $103.11 before recovering slightly, but still remained more than 2% down from previous close.

Washington Post has quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York that Iran has submitted a proposal to U.S. officials through mediators this week to end the Middle East war.

Despite differences over Iran, Taiwan and trade, Trump described the meeting as "great" and hailed the "truly great friendship" he has forged with his counterpart. China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs described Xi's visit to the U.S. as a "great visit."

The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.35%. The UK's FTSE 100 and Germany's DAX gained 0.14% and 0.58%, respectively. France's CAC 40 ended 0.04% down, while Switzerland's SMI closed up by 0.29%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Türkiye closed higher.

Czech Republic, Iceland, Norway, Poland and Russia ended weak, while Denmark and Finland closed flat.

In the UK market, miners and banking sector stocks posted strong gains.

Lion Finance, Computacenter, Pershing Square Holdings, Standard Chartered, Fresnillo, Glencore and Smiths Group gained 2.2%-3.3%.

Aberdeen Group, IAG, 3i Group, Next, Lloyds Banking Group, Barratt Redrow, Endeavour Mining, Barclays, Anglo American Plc, Natwest Group, JD Sports Fashion, AstraZeneca, Polar Capital Technology Trust, The Sage Group, Spirax Group, AstraZeneca and Associated British Foods also ended notably higher.

Energy stocks Ithaca and BP lost 3.6% and 2.3%, respectively. Shell ended lower by about 0.8%.

Bunzl, British American Tobacco, GSK, Imperial Brands, Centrica, Convatec Group and BAE Systems also ended weak.

In the German market, Adidas, Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank gained 2.7%-3%. Daimler Truck Holding, Siemens Healthineers, Bayer, Siemens, Deutsche Post, Volkswagen, Brenntag, Fresenius Medical Care, Allianz, SAP and Fresenius also closed with impressive gains.

HelloFresh tanked nearly 10% as the meal-kit company trimmed its outlook for the financial year 2026 after a sharper-than-planned cut in marketing spending undermined customer acquisition.

BASF ended down by about 3.6%. Scout24, BMW and Rheinmetall lost 1%-1.7%.

In the French market, Societe Generale gained about 3.5%. Accor, Stellantis, Credit Agricole, Teleperformance and Orange moved up 1%-1.5%.

TotalEnergies, Thales, Kering, Airbus, Danone and Pernod Ricard lost 1%-1.31%.

In economic news, German consumer confidence is set to fall in October as rising energy prices dragged down income expectations, monthly survey results of the NIM Consumer Climate powered by GfK showed. The forward-looking consumer sentiment index fell more-than-expected to -30.6 in October from -26.8 in September. The score was seen at -27.1.

Data from INSEE showed private payroll employment in France fell 0.1% quarter-on-quarter, or 24,300 jobs, to 21 million in the second quarter of 2026, confirming preliminary estimates and following a revised flat reading in the previous period. Compared with a year earlier, private employment was down 0.4%, marking the sixth consecutive quarter of year-on-year decline, though it remained 5.1% (+1 million jobs) above its pre-pandemic level.

A report from GfK Group showed the UK GfK Consumer Confidence Index rose to -13 in September from -14 in the previous month, reaching its highest level since August 2024. The reading came above the Reuters poll forecast of -16, adding to recent signs of resilience in the UK economy.