European Markets Finish Mixed And Little Changed

(RTTNews) - The major European markets were unable to hold onto early gains on Tuesday, giving ground as the day progressed to finish mixed and fairly flat.

The early support for the markets followed the release of mixed Chinese manufacturing data, but the markets ran out of momentum and were weighed by weakness from the technology sectors.

For the day, Germany's DAX picked up 17.72 points or 0.11 percent to finish at 16,769.36, while London's FTSE dipped 11.72 points or 0.15 percent to close at 7,721.52 and the CAC 40 in France fell 12.32 points or 0.16 percent to end at 7,530.86.

In Germany, Fresenius surged 3.38 percent, while Zalando tumbled 2.28 percent, Bayer rallied 2.07 percent, Infineon Technologies slumped 1.96 percent, Vonovia retreated 1.72 percent, Deutsche Telekom advanced 0.99 percent, Volkswagen improved 0.97 percent, Siemens Energy lost 0.96 percent, Deutsche Bank collected 0.95 percent and Deutsche Post rose 0.11 percent.

In London, St. James Place plunged 3.63 percent, while Prudential tanked 3.49 percent, Rightmove tumbled 3.20 percent, Auto Trader declined 2.55 percent, Scottish Mortgage skidded 2.48 percent, Rentokil sank 1.88 percent, Vodafone jumped 1.75 percent, British American Tobacco climbed 1.57 percent, Tesco added 0.90 percent, Haleon gained 0.79 percent and Rolls-Royce fell 0.53 percent.

In France, Pernod Ricard tumbled 2.63 percent, while Societe Generale spiked 2.46 percent, Orange advanced 1.82 percent, Credit Agricole rallied 1.65 percent, Sanofi gained 1.26 percent, BNP Paribas collected 1.23 percent, Veolia sank 0.56 percent and Engie improved 0.20 percent.

In economic news, British manufacturing activity contracted at a faster pace in December as output fell sharply amid weaker demand conditions both domestically and internationally, survey results from S&P Global revealed Tuesday.

The euro area manufacturing sector continued to contract at the end of the year with fall in output and job losses, final data from S&P Global showed on Tuesday. The index has remained below the neutral 50.0 mark indicating contraction, although the reading was the highest in seven months.

Growth in the lending to households in the euro area slowed in November, while loans to the non-financial institutions were unchanged, preliminary data from the European Central Bank showed Tuesday.