European Stocks Close Broadly Higher On Growth Hopes, Easing Concerns About Rates

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed broadly higher on Friday with investors digesting the latest batch of economic data from the region, earnings updates from major U.S. banks, and continuing to assess the likely impact of U.S. consumer price inflation data on Federal Reserve's monetary policy stance.

Investors continued to cheer signs of slowing U.S. inflation, and reacted to better-than-expected trade data from China.

The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.52%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.64%, Germany's DAX ended 0.19% up, and France's CAC 40 surged 0.69%. Switzerland's SMI edged up 0.03%.

Among other markets in Europe, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Russia, Spain and Turkiye closed higher.

Czech Republic, Finland, Poland, Portugal and Sweden ended weak, while Austria and Norway settled flat.

Rolls-Royce Holdings gained about 4.6%. Haleon and Airtel Africa both gained about 3.6%.

IAG, Glencore, Natwest Group, Barclays, 3i Group, Taylor Wimpey, AstraZeneca, Lloyds Banking Group, B&M European Value Retail, Berkeley Group Holdings and Hargreaves Lansdown advanced 1.75 to 3%.

Fresnillo, Aviva, British American Tobacco, Anglo American Plc, Ashtead Group, Sainsbury (J), Segro, Monti, Rio Tinto and BT Group lost 1 to 2%.

In Paris, Dassault Systemes, Essilor, ArcelorMittal, Hermes International, L'Oreal and Teleperformance gained 1.8 to 2%.

Kering, LVMH, Alstom, Pernod Ricard, Safran, Saint Gobain and Sanofi climbed 1 to 1.6%.

Stellantis drifted down nearly 4% and Bouygues ended 3.3% down. Veolia, Renault and Carrefour also ended sharply lower.

In the German market, Zalando, Siemens Healthineers, Bayer, RWE, Symrise, Linde and Continental gained 1 to 2.5%.

Volkswagen, Daimler and Porsche Automobile ended lower by 2.3 to 2.7%. BMW ended 1.6% down.

In economic news, Germany's gross domestic product growth slowed less than expected in the year 2022, driven mainly by private consumption and investment in machinery, and returned to pre-pandemic levels. Despite the better performance, economists continue to look forward to a mild recession in the biggest euro area economy this year.

GDP grew a price-adjusted 1.9% in 2022, which was slower than the 2.6% expansion in the previous year, preliminary data from Destatis showed Friday. Economists had forecast 1.8% growth.

The German economy expanded for a second year in a row after a 3.7% contraction in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic severely hurt growth across the world. In 2019, the economy grew 1.1%.

France's consumer price inflation eased as initially estimated in December amid a slowdown in the price growth of energy, softening pressure on the European Central Bank to tighten policy at an aggressive pace, the latest data from the statistical office INSEE showed.

The consumer price index climbed 5.9% year-over-year in December, slower than the 6.2% rise in November.

Eurozone industrial production recovered in November largely reflecting higher output of intermediate and capital goods, Eurostat reported Friday.

Industrial production grew 1% on a monthly basis in November, in contrast to the 1.9% decline in October. Output was expected to climb moderately by 0.5%.

The euro area trade deficit narrowed to a nine-month low in November as exports increased amid falling imports, data from Eurostat revealed Friday.

The trade deficit declined to a seasonally adjusted EUR 15.2 billion from EUR 28.1 billion in October. This was the lowest since February, when the deficit totaled EUR 12.4 billion.

Exports increased 1% from October, while imports fell 3.8% in November.

Data from the Office for National Statistics showed the UK economy unexpectedly expanded in November, with GDP rising 0.1% on a monthly basis, confounding expectations for a fall of 0.2%. Nonetheless, the pace of growth eased sharply from 0.5% in October.

On a yearly basis, the economy expanded only 0.2% in November after October's annual growth of 1.1%.