European Shares Gain As Investors Await Lagarde Speech

(RTTNews) - European stocks were seeing modest gains on Friday ahead of European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde's speech later in the day.

She will participate in another panel today in Davos after warning earlier this week that cutting interest rates too soon could threaten Europe's progress in battling the inflation.

The British pound fell against the euro, dollar and other currencies after data showed British retailers suffered the biggest drop in sales for almost three years during December, increasing the odds of an early rate cut by the Bank of England.

Retail sales declined 3.2 percent on month in December, reversing the 1.4 percent increase in November. The decline was also bigger than forecast of 0.5 percent drop.

On a yearly basis, overall retail sales declined 2.4 percent after a 0.2 percent gain.

Elsewhere, German producer prices declined for the sixth straight month in December due to cheaper energy costs.

The pan European STOXX 600 edged up 0.3 percent to 471.93, after having risen 0.6 percent on Thursday to snap a two-session losing streak.

The German DAX and France's CAC 40 both added around 0.3 percent, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 jumped 0.7 percent.

In corporate news, food delivery company Deliveroo edged up slightly after saying it expects 2023 earnings slightly ahead of guidance.

4imprint Group shares jumped 12 percent. The direct marketer of promotional products said that it is expecting profit as well as revenue for the full year to increase from last year.

BASF rose about 1 percent after the German chemicals major said that it expects to swing to a net income of €225m in 2023.