Major European Markets Close Mixed

(RTTNews) - The major European markets closed on a mixed note on Wednesday with investors largely staying wary of picking up stocks amid rising fears of a recession after disappointing data from the euro area and China.

Looming interest rate hikes by central banks weighed as well on stocks. The European Central Bank (ECB) is scheduled to announce its monetary policy on Thursday.

Euro zone bond yields rose today amid increased bets on a 75-basis point rate hike from the ECB to tame record-high inflation.

The pan European Stoxx 600 drifted down 0.57%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended 0.86% down, while Germany's DAX advanced 0.35% and France's CAC 40 edged up 0.02%. Switzerland's SMI shed 0.27%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Poland, Spain and Turkiye closed higher.

Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia and Sweden ended weak, while Belgium settled flat.

In the UK market, SSE surged nearly 4%. Fresnillo, Flutter Entertainment, Centrica, Hargreaves Lansdown, Aveva Group and Croda International gained 1.5 to 2.5%.

Standard Chartered ended lower by about 4.25%. Glencore, Assoicated British Foods, Vodafone Group, Tesco, BP, DCC, Barclays, Anglo American Plc, Rio Tinto, SHELL and HSBC Holdings shed 2 to 4%.

In Paris, Accor, Carrefour, Thales, Airbus Group and Atos ended lower by 1 to 2%.

Engie climbed nearly 5%. Faureica and Valeo gained 4.3% and 4%, respectively. Kering, Renault, StMicroElectronics, Air Fance-KLM, Sodexo, Schneider Electric, Safran and Unibail Rodamco gained 1.5 to 2.5%.

In the German market, Deutsche Bank, Adidas, Puma and Allianz lost 1.6 to 2%. Zalando ended lower by about 1.25%.

RWE rallied more than 7%. Covestro, BASF, BMW, Continental, Daimler, Munich RE, Linde and E.ON gained 1 to 2.5%.

On the economic front, Germany industrial production declined in July, falling by 0.3% on a monthly basis, data released by Destatis showed. Industrial production had increased by 0.8% in June.

Excluding energy and construction, industrial output was down 1% in July, the data showed.

The euro area economy expanded more than estimated in the second quarter, the latest figures from Eurostat showed.

Gross domestic product advanced 0.8% sequentially, following a 0.7% rise in the first quarter. The second quarter figure was revised up from a 0.6% expansion seen in the second estimate published on August 17.

At the same time, the annual GDP growth eased to 4.1% from 5.4% a quarter ago. The annual rate was revised up from 3.9%.

UK house price inflation eased for the second straight month in August, while house prices rebounded slightly on a monthly basis, survey data from the Lloyds Bank subsidiary Halifax showed on Wednesday.

The house price index climbed 11.5% year-over-year in August, slower than the 11.8% increase in the previous month. This was the slowest rate of increase in three months.

On a monthly basis, house prices rose 0.4% in August, reversing a 0.1% decrease in the prior month. However, that was below the average monthly inflation of 0.9% over the last year.