European Stocks Close Higher Amid Slightly Easing Fears Over Recession

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed higher on Monday with investors weighing economic data from the region and the U.S., and continuing to digest quarterly earnings announcements and other corporate news.

With recent strong data from the U.S. and the euro area turning out to be fairly encouraging, worries about recession have eased a bit, lifting investor sentiment.

After the July surge in U.S. non-farm payroll employment raised the odds of a third 75 basis-point rate hike in September, investors now looked ahead to the release of U.S. inflation data and U.K. GDP data this week for further direction.

The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.74%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 surged 0.57%, Germany's DAX advanced 0.84% and France's CAC 40 moved up 0.8%, while Switzerland's SMI gained 0.39%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye ended with sharp to moderate gains.

Denmark and Norway closed weak.

In the UK market, Hargreaves Lansdown rallied 7.2%. Rolls-Royce Holdings climbed nearly 4.5%, while Endeavour Mining, ABRDN, Smith (DS), Prudential, JD Sports Fashion, Smurfit Kappa Group, Mondi, Coca-Cola HBC, Flutter Entertainment, 3I Group, Fresnillo and Melrose Industries gained 2 to 4%.

RS Group drifted down 2.35%. AstraZeneca, Avast, Centrica and Pearson also ended notably lower.

Page Group shares slumped more than 7% after the company reported a 79.3% jump in half-year operating profit. The recruiter also noted a "slight slowing in time to hire" in July across some of its markets.

In the German market, E.ON, Daimler, HelloFresh and Deutsche Wohnen gained 2.5 to 3%. RWE, Adidas, Continental, BMW, BASF, Vonovia, MTU Aero Engines, Munich RE, Henke, Symrise and Sartorius gained 1.2 to 2.2%.

In Paris, Faurecia gained nearly 6.5%. Valeo moved up nearly 5%. Veolia, Publicis Groupe, Teleperformance, Pernod Ricard, Accor, AXA and Kering advanced 1.5 to 2%.

Air France-KLM, Sanofi, STMicroElectronics and BNP Paribas shed 0.7 to 1.25%.

In European economic news, Eurozone investor confidence improved in August but less than expected suggesting that the economy is undergoing a downturn, results of a closely-watched survey showed.

The investor confidence index rose to -25.2 in August from -26.4 in July. Nonetheless, the reading was below economists' forecast of -24.7.

Data from the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, or SECO, Switzerland's unemployment rate held steady in July after falling in the previous month.

The unadjusted unemployment rate came in at 2% in July, the same rate as in June. In the corresponding month last year, the jobless rate was 2.8%.

Data also showed that the seasonally adjusted jobless rate remained unchanged at 2.2% in July.