European Shares Rebound In Cautious Trade, Banks Lead

(RTTNews) - European stocks rebounded on Thursday after seeing heavy losses in the previous two sessions on worries about high inflation and the impact of aggressive policy tightening on growth.

On the economic front, U.K. consumer confidence slipped into negative territory for the first time since June 2020, while French consumer price inflation slowed less than expected in August, separate reports showed.

Elsewhere, Germany's wholesale price inflation eased for the fourth month in a row in August but remained at an elevated level.

The pan European Stoxx 600 was up 0.2 percent at 418.28 after losing 0.9 percent on Wednesday.

Spanish lenders Bankinter, Sabadell and Caixabank all jumped over 5 percent after reports that Madrid could modify a bank tax to avoid conflicts with the European Central Bank.

H&M fell 1.2 percent after the fashion retailer posted lower-than-expected quarterly sales.

Miners Antofagasta and Anglo American rose about 1 percent each after a flurry of Chinese cities announced measures to boost housing demand. Commodity trader Glencore jumped 3 percent.

Wizz Air Holdings rallied 3 percent. The low-cost airline said it has exercised an option with Airbus SE to buy 75 Airbus A321neo aircraft as per the agreement signed last November.

Avation surged 5 percent. The commercial passenger aircraft leasing company said it will return to net profit in fiscal 2022, following a recovery in the performance of the company and the sector.

e-commerce retailer THG plummeted 18 percent after widening its first-half loss.

Uniper fell slightly in choppy trade on news that the German government could end up taking a majority stake in the ailing gas importer.