European Shares Decline As Growth Concerns Weigh
(RTTNews) - European stocks fell on the last trading day of the year as doubts over official Chinese COVID numbers and new regulations for travelers from China curbed investor optimism surrounding China's reopening.
The escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and lingering worries over aggressive central bank tightening also weighed on sentiment.
The pan European STOXX Europe 600 was down half a percent at 428.03 and was on track to cap the worst annual performance since 2018.
The German DAX and France's CAC 40 index both slipped around 0.8 percent while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 was down 0.2 percent.
Luxury firms such as LVMH, Kering, Hermes International and Richemont all fell around 1 percent on concerns that surging COVID-19 cases in China would weigh on global growth.
In economic releases, U.K. house price inflation slowed markedly at the end of the year as the rising interest rates and high inflation started to dampen the affordability of home buyers, data from the mortgage lender Nationwide showed earlier today.
House prices were 2.8 percent higher than in December 2021. This was slower than November's 4.4 percent increase, but faster than economists' forecast of 2.3 percent.
On a monthly basis, house prices dropped at a slower pace of 0.1 percent after a 1.4 percent decrease in November.
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