European Stocks Slightly Higher In Cautious Trade

(RTTNews) - European stocks are slightly higher in cautious trade on Monday with investors digesting regional earnings updates and German wholesale prices data, and awaiting inflation data from the U.K., and U.S. due later in the week.

The pan European Stoxx 600 is up 0.2%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 is gaining 0.54%, Germany's DAX is advancing 0.25% and France's CAC 40 is up 0.02%. Switzerland's SMI is up 0.32%.

In the German market, Rhienmetall shares are up more than 7.5% after the company said that it has been commissioned to supply main battle tanks and armoured recovery vehicles to the Czech Republic as part of a ring swap process commissioned by the German government to support Ukraine.

Hannover Rueck is climbing more than 4.5%. Puma, Commerzbank, Henkel, Munich RE and Brenntag are gaining 1 to 2%.

Vonovia is down by about 1.2%. Fresenius Medical Care, BMW, Bayer and Mercedes-Benz are moderately lower.

In the French market, Unibail Rodamco, Vivendi, TotalEnergies, Teleperformance, Societe Generale, STMicroElectronics and Engie are up 0.5 to 1%.

Kering is down 1.6%, and AXA is declining by about 1%. Bouygues, Essilor, Orange and Vinci are also weak.

In the UK market, BT Group is up nearly 6.5%. Centrica is gaining 2.3%, while Standard Chartered, BAE Systems, Diploma, Entain, Legal & General, Coca-Cola, Barclays, BP, Marks & Spencer, Smith (DS), Endeavour Mining, Prudential, Natwest Group and IMI are up 1 to 2%.

JD Sports Fashion is down 3.7%. B&M European Value Retail, Hikma Pharmaceuticals and Frasers Group are down 1.3 to 1.6%.

On the economic front, Germany's wholesale prices continued to fall in July but the pace of decrease was marginal, data from Destatis showed.

Wholesale prices posted an annual drop of 0.1% in July after easing 0.6% in June.

The latest year-on-year decline was largely driven by the 8.4% fall in chemical product prices and 7.7 percent decrease in prices of iron, steel and semi-finished products, the data said.

Month-on-month, wholesale prices gained 0.3%, offsetting June's 0.3% fall. Economists had forecast a monthly growth of 0.2%.