European Stocks Close Broadly Higher After Cautious Session

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed broadly higher on Thursday, with investors reacting positively to some fairly strong economic data from the region.

The mood, however, remained cautious ahead of Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium on Friday for clues about the central bank's economic outlook and interest rates.

The European Central Bank's minutes of the latest policy meeting showed the bank is set to continue with interest rate hikes to combat soaring inflation.

The pan European Stoxx 600 gained 0.3%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged up 0.11%, Germany's DAX surged 0.39% and Switzerland's SMI climbed 0.46%, while France's CAC 40 edged down 0.08%.

Among other markets in Europe, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Turkiye closed higher.

Austria, Czech Republic and Spain edged lower, while Belgium, Norway, Portugal and Russia ended flat.

In the UK market, CRH climbed 3.4%. Pershing Square Holdings, Rentokil Initial, Antofagasta, Informa, Glencore, BP, Anglo American Plc, RS Group, Standard Chartered, Shell and Barclays gained 1 to 2.2%.

Coca-Cola HBC, Persimmon, Mondi, B&M European Value Retail, Ocado Group, Haleon, Natwest Group and Prudential ended notably lower.

In the German market, Siemens Healthineers, Bayer, Infineon Technologies, Sartorius, Munich RE, Deutsche Post and BASF gained 1 to 2%.

Vonovia, HelloFresh and Zalando ended lower by 1.7 to 2%.

In Paris, Unibail Rodamco rallied nearly 2% after the company said it has completed the sale of Westfield Santa Anita in Arcadia, California in a $537.5 million deal.

Veolia surged after the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority ordered that the French waste management firm must sell most of the operations it took over in the U.K. when it acquired Suez.

StMicroElectronics and ArcelorMittal also closed sharply higher. Thales, Air France-KLM and Renault moved up as well.

In economic news, the German economy expanded in the second quarter, beating the initial estimates, data released by Destatis showed.

Gross domestic product grew 0.1% sequentially, in contrast to the flat growth estimated on July 29. This was followed by the 0.8% expansion in the first quarter.

"Despite difficult framework conditions in the global economy, the German economy held its ground in the first two quarters of 2022," said Georg Thiel, President of the Federal Statistical Office.

Germany's business confidence weakened for the third straight month in August to the lowest since mid-2020, signaling that the economy is sliding into a recession, survey results from the ifo Institute showed Thursday.

The business climate index fell to 88.5 points in August from 88.7 points in July. This was the lowest score since June 2020 but well above economists' forecast of 86.8.

Data from the statistical office INSEE showed that confidence among the French manufacturers weakened further as expected in August, as they were less confident about past changes in production and order books, survey data from

The business climate index for the manufacturing sector fell to 104 in August from 106 in July, in line with expectations.

UK car production increased for the third straight month in July, data published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, or SMMT, showed. Car production grew 8.6% year-over-year to 58,043 units in July.

UK retail sales unexpectedly rebounded in August but firms were pessimistic about the business outlook, the latest quarterly Distributive Trades Survey from the Confederation of British Industry showed.