European Stocks Close Broadly Higher As Investors React To Earnings, Data

(RTTNews) - European stocks started off on a negative note on Friday, but with investors reacting to a slew of earnings updates and economic data, recovered gradually as the session progressed to eventually close broadly higher.

Investors continued to weigh the European Central Bank's interest rate decision, and looked ahead to next week's Federal Reserve meeting for clues on whether a pivot on the pace of rate hikes is on the table.

The pan European Stoxx 600 edged up 0.14%. Germany's DAX gained 0.24% and France's CAC 40 ended 0.46% up, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended 0.37% down. Switzerland's SMI advanced 0.61%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Poland, Russia and Sweden closed higher.

Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Portugal and Turkiye ended weak, while Norway and Spain settled flat.

In the UK market, Airtel Africa rallied nearly 6%. Centrica surged 5.1%. GSK, CRH, AstraZeneca, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever, SSE, Vodafone Group, Rentokil Initial and BAE Systems gained 1 to 2.2%.

Natwest Group shares plunged more than 9% as the high street lender missed estimates for profit in the third quarter amid increased impairment provisions.

IAG ended more than 2% down despite the company's revenue exceeding pre-pandmic levels.

Harbour Energy, Ocado Group, JD Sports Fashion, Rio Tinto, M&G, Lloyds Banking Group, ICP, Anglo American Plc, Endeavour Mining and Standard Chartered are down 3 to 5.1%.

Fresnillo, Antofagasta, Next, Scottish Mortgage, Barclays, Prudential, Frasers Group, Halma, Kingfisher and Segro also ended sharply lower.

In Paris, Airbus Group gained 4%. Safran gained more than 3% after the jet engine maker and aerospace supplier raised its 2022 revenue and cashflow targets.

Sanofi surged after forecasting faster earnings growth this year after reporting strong sales in the third quarter.

Danone moved up more than 2% after raising its 2022 revenue growth forecast.

Carrefour, Thales, Schneider Electric, Air Liquide, Michelin, Orange and Vinci gained 1 to 2%.

Air France-KLM plunged more than 13% after the airline lowered its full-year capacity guidance.

Atos, Valeo, ArcelorMittal, STMicroElectronics, Vivendi, Hermes International, Kering, Renault and Societe Generale ended lower by 1.5 to 4%.

In the German market, MTU Aero Engines and Deutsche Telekom gained about 4% and 3.4%, respectively. Linde, Bayer, Henkel and Sartorius also ended notably higher.

Fresenius Medical Care tumbled nearly 9%. HelloFresh, Vonovia, Zalando, Deutsche Wohnen and Fresenius lost 3 to 5.1%. Deutsche Post, Volkswagen, Covestro, BASF and Continental also ended notably lower.

In economic releases, economic sentiment in the eurozone deteriorated again in October, weighed by high inflation and a darkening outlook for the economy, the European Commission said.

The corresponding indicator dropped to 92.5 in October from a revised reading of 93.6 in September.

Flash data from Destatis showed Germany's economy expanded unexpectedly in the third quarter underpinned by private consumption.

The biggest euro area economy logged a quarterly growth of 0.3%, confounding expectations for a contraction of 0.2%. The pace of growth was faster than the 0.1% rise posted in the second quarter.

The French economy posted a slower growth in the third quarter, thanks to a stagnation in household spending due to high inflation, and the weak foreign demand, preliminary data from the statistical office INSEE revealed.

Gross domestic product grew 0.2% from the second quarter, when the economy expanded 0.5%. The pace of growth came in line with economists' expectations.

Separately, flash data from the statistical office revealed that French consumer price inflation accelerated at a faster-than-expected pace to a new record high in October amid higher costs of energy, food, and manufactured goods.

Consumer price inflation rose to 6.2% in October from 5.6% in September while economists had forecast inflation to increase slightly to 5.7%. This was the strongest inflation since 1985.