European Stocks Close Broadly Lower As Tech Stocks Decline Sharply

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed lower on Monday, with several markets falling after several days of gains, due to a sell-off in the tech shares amid concerns about the impact of the rapidly growing Chinese AI startup DeepSeek on the earnings of on the sector.

Concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats and policies, and anxiety ahead of interest rate decisions from the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank also contributed to the weakness in the markets.

The pan European Stoxx 600 edged down 0.07%. Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 closed down 0.53% and 0.27%, respectively. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged up 0.02%, and Switzerland's SMI climbed 1.05%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Finland, Iceland, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia,Sweden and Turkiye closed weak.

Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Norway and Spain ended higher.

Mining stocks were among the notable losers in the UK market, after data showed a contraction in the manufacturing sector in the world's largest economy.

The latest survey from the National Bureau of Statistics said the manufacturing sector in China fell into contraction in January, with the manufacturing PMI score dropping to 49.1. That missed expectations for a reading of 50.1, the previous month's score.

Anglo American Plc tumbled more than 6%, weighed down by reports that BHP Group is halting the bid to acquire the company, backing out for the time being due to recent rise in Aanglo American's stock prices.

Glencore, Antogasta, Endeavour Mining and Fresnilla lost 2 to 4%. Rio Tinto closed down 1.7%.

Scottish Mortgage, JD Sports Fashion, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Ashtead Group, Halma, ICG, Diploma, IMI, F&C Investment Trust, Centrica, Kingfisher, 3i Group, Barclays Group, Smiths Group, Shell, IAG, Standard Chartered and Lloyds Banking Group also closed notably lower.

British American Tobacco climbed about 4% after the Trump administration withdrew a plan to ban menthol cigarettes in the U.S. Low-cost airline Ryanair is up more than 2% after reporting better-than-expected quarterly earnings.

Convatec Group, GSK, Airtel Africa, Unilever, Croda International and Hikma Pharmaceuticals gained 2 to 4%.

Reckitt Benckiser, Rentokil Initial, Hiscox, Schrodders, British Land, Unite Group and Entain also closed sharply higher.

In the German market, Siemens energy tanked more than 20%. The company is a significant provider of electric hardware for AI infrastructure.

Siemens closed lower by about 3.7%. Infineon, HeidelbergCement, Rheinmetall, SAP and Puma lost 1 to 2%.

Brenntag, Symrise, Zalando, Bayer, BMW, Vonovia, Beiersdorf and Porchse gained 2 to 4%.

Hannover Rueck, Deutsche Telekom, Volkswagen, Munich RE, Mercedes-Benz, E.ON, Allianz, Continental and Deutsche Boerse advanced 1 to 1.6%.

In the French market, Schneider Electric fell more than 9%. Legrand declined about 6.7%. Saint Gobain and Capgemini lost 1.6% and 1.25%, respectively.

Vivendi climbed more than 6%. LVMH, Eurofins Scientific, Kering, Danone, Teleperformance, Unibail Rodamco, Carrefour, Air Liquide, Orange, Stellantis and L'Oreal gained 1.4 to 2.3%. Sanofi, Vinci, AXA, Publicis Groupe, BNP Paribas and Societe Generale also ended notably higher.

On the economic front, a report from Ifo Institutue said that its business climate indicator for Germany edged up to 85.1 in January, from 84.7 in the previous month.

The current conditions gauge rose to 86.1 from 85.1, above forecasts of 85.4 while the sub-index for business expectations edged down to 84.2 from 84.4, matching forecasts. The services sector is improving while manufacturing declined again but the stagnation in the Germany economy continued, according to the Ifo President.