European Shares Mixed In Lackluster Trade; Factory PMI Data Eyed
(RTTNews) - European stocks traded mixed on Thursday as traders returned to their desks after the New Year holidays.
In economic releases, U.K. house prices grew 4.7 percent year-on-year in December, faster than the 3.7 percent increase in November and also stronger than economists' forecast of 3.8 percent gain., data from the Nationwide Building Society showed earlier today.
At the same time, on a monthly basis, house price inflation softened to 0.7 percent from 1.2 percent in November.
Investors await final factory Purchasing Managers' survey results from the euro area and the U.K. later in the day for important clues on how the manufacturing sector performed in the final month of 2024.
The pan-European STOXX 600 was down 0.1 percent at 507.08, slipping from near a two-week high after experiencing its steepest quarterly decline in over two years from October to December.
The German DAX and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 were little changed, while France's CAC 40 dipped half a percent.
Higher commodity prices lifted mining and energy stocks, with Antofagasta, Glencore and BP Plc all rising around 1 percent in London.
Vestas Wind Systems jumped 3.2 percent after the Danish wind turbine maker announced a number of supply orders in Europe in the second half of December that add up to over 1.2 GW of combined capacity.
Intrum AB, Europe's largest debt collector, soared 13 percent after a U.S. court approved its restructuring plan.
Vodafone edged up slightly after completing the sale of its Italian operations to Swisscom for €8 billion in cash.
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