European Stocks Close On Mixed Note

(RTTNews) - European stocks ended on a mixed note on Friday despite seeing some bright moments in positive territory during the course of the day's session.

Easing concerns about interest rates after U.S. consumer price and producer price inflation data came in tamer-than-expected, and fairly strong earnings updates from major U.S. banks Citigroup Inc., Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase helped underpin sentiment and limit losses.

The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.11%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged down 0.08% and Germany's DAX dropped 0.22%. Switzerland's SMI climbed 0.8%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden ended weak.

Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Russia and Turkiye closed higher.

In the UK market, Ocado Group ended more than 4% down. Croda International, Rolls-Royce Holdings, BP, Legal & General, Johnson Matthey, Shell, Aviva, Fresnillo and M&G shed 1 to 3%.

Spirax-Sarco Engineering climbed more than 3%. Mondi, Halma, Experian, Unite Group, Auto Trader Group, RightMove, Smurfit Kappa Group, Rentokil Initial, Frasers Group, Burberry Group and Persimmon gained 1 to 2%.

McBride shares soared 20% after the consumer goods manufacturer confirmed that it will report a return to profitability for fiscal 2023.

In the German market, Brenntag ended lower by more than 3%. BASF drifted down 2.3%. Commerzbank and Siemens Energy also ended sharply lower.

Deutsche Boerse, Siemens Healthineers, Daimler Truck Holding, SAP and Fresenius gained 0.6 to 1.3%.

In Paris, TotalEnergies shed 2.6%. AXA, Safran, Societe Generale, Airbus Group, ArcelorMittal and Carrefour lost 1 to 1.25%.

LVMH gained about 1.7% and Hermes International climbed 1.6%. L'Oreal, Vinci and Pernord Ricard posted moderate gains.

Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia plunged more than 9% after lowering its full-year outlook.

Shares of Swedish multinational company Ericsson slumped nearly 11% on weak results. The company posted a second quarter net loss of 0.6 billion Swedish kronor compared to profit of 4.7 billion kronor, prior year, primarily due to restructuring charges.

Swedish property group SBB plummeted 11% after posting a wider pre-tax loss in the second quarter.

On the economic front, Germany's wholesale prices posted the biggest fall in three years in June, data from Destatis showed.

Wholesale prices decreased 2.9% on a yearly basis in June, bigger than the 2.6% fall in May. The rate came in line with expectations. The annual fall was the biggest since June 2020.

Month-on-month, wholesale prices dropped 0.2% after easing 1.1% in May. Prices were forecast to ease more markedly by 1.2%.

Data from Eurostat showed the eurozone trade deficit fell to a seasonally adjusted EUR 0.9 billion in May from EUR 8.0 billion in April.

Exports posted a monthly increase of 2.9%, while imports decreased 0.1% in May.

Data from the Federal Statistical Office showed Switzerland's producer and import prices 0.6% year-on-year in June, faster than the 0.3% fall in the previous month. The expected decrease was 1.2%.

The producer price index climbed 1.7% annually in June, while import prices registered a decrease of 5%. On a monthly basis, producer and import prices remained flat in June versus a 0.3% drop in May.