European Stocks Close Higher On Strong Earnings

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed higher on Tuesday with investors digesting a slew of strong earnings updates and looking ahead to upcoming policy announcements from the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.

The initial euphoria over the election of Rishi Sunak as the U.K. Prime Minister has faded a bit now, and markets now await Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt's budget on October 31 to know about how the government plans to plug a 40 billion pound hold in Britain's public finances.

The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 1.44%. Germany's DAX surged 0.94% and France's CAC 40 rallied 1.94%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended flat, while Switzerland's SMI gained 1.68%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Sweden closed with sharp to moderate gains.

Czech Republic and Greece drifted lower, while Turkiye settled flat.

In the UK market, Segro climbed more than 7%. Land Securities, Flutter Entertainment, Ocado Group, Hargreaves Lansdown, B&M European Value Retail, Scottish Mortgage, Taylor Wimpey, Sage Group, British Land Co., RightMove and Entain gained 3.5 to 6%.

HSBC Holdings plunged nearly 7% after the bank reported higher-than-expected charges for possible loan losses in its third-quarter results.

Shell shed about 2.4%. Standard Chartered, Compass Group, Harbour Energy and Anglo American lost 1 to 1.25%.

In France, Air Liquide surged more than 6.5% after its third-quarter revenue exceeded expectations. After delivering significantly higher revenue in the third quarter, the industrial gases company said it is confident in its ability to further increase its operating margin and to deliver recurring net profit growth, at constant exchange rates.

Dassault Systemes, Hermes International, Unibail Rodamco, Vivendi, Kering, LVMH, STMicroElectronics and Essilor gained 3 to 5%.

Atos plunged nearly 11%. WorldLine declined 2.8% despite reporting better than expected quarterly earnings update. ArcelorMittal ended lower by about 1.6%.

In the German market, SAP surged 6.5% after the German business software maker said it would miss deadline to exit Russia before the end of the year.

Zalando and HelloFresh gained 6.7%, 6.5% and 5.7%, respectively. Puma, Vonovia, Sartorius, Deutsche Wohnen, Symrise, Fresenius Medical Care, Deutsche Post, Infineon Technologies, Merck and RWE gained 2 to 5%.

Covestro ended nearly 4% down after cutting its 2022 earnings guidance for the third time this year.

Linde and Adidas also lost more than 3%. BASF declined by about 2.4%.

Shares of Swiss banking giant UBS Group rallied nearly 8% after the bank reported stronger than expected earnings in the third quarter.

In economic releases, German business confidence dropped slightly in October, survey results from ifo Institute showed earlier today. The business confidence index fell less-than-expected to 84.3 in October from 84.4 in the previous month. The score was seen at 83.3.

The euro area banks expect fall in demand for housing and corporate loans in the fourth quarter, the Bank Lending Survey from the European Central Bank showed Tuesday.

Reflecting rising interest rates and easing consumer confidence, demand for housing loans declined substantially in the third quarter. Demand for consumer credit and other lending to households also decreased in net terms.

However, there was an increase in demand from firms for loans or drawing of credit lines due to rising financing needs for working capital and inventories.