European Stocks Close Higher

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed higher on Monday, continuing to react to encouraging U.S. jobs data and earnings updates, and looking ahead to more economic and results, and the Bank of England's interest rate decision.

The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.35%. France's CAC 40 gained 0.11% and Switzerland's SMI advanced 0.35%, while Germany's DAX edged down 0.05%. The U.K. market was closed today to observe the coronation of King Charles.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Turkiye closed with sharp to moderate gains.

Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland and Netherlands posted modest gains. Iceland and Russia closed lower, while Sweden settled flat.

In the French market, Alstom rallied nearly 3.5%. ArcelorMittal gained about 2%, while Bouygues, WorldLine, Unibail Rodamco and Pernod Ricard moved up 1 to 1.6%.

L'Oreal, LVMH, Carrefour, Engie, Hermes International, Saint Gobain, Vinci and BNP Paribas posted moderate gains.

AXA tumbled more than 4%. Teleperformance drifted down 2.8%, while Capgemini and Sanofi lost about 1.6% and 1.3%, respectively.

In the German market, Commerzbank, Hannover Rueck, BMW and Puma gained 1.2 to 1.5%. Siemens Energy advanced nearly 1%, while Daimler and SAP posted modest gains.

Merck ended 2.5% down, and Munich RE eased 2.3%. Porsche drifted down by about 1.5%. Vonovia, BASF and MTU Aero Engines also ended notably lower.

On the economic front, Germany's industrial production declined more than expected in March, falling 3.4% from February, data from Destatis showed. In February, production rose 2.1%. Economists had expected a 1.3% drop in production in March.

On a yearly basis, industrial production growth improved to 1.8% from 0.7% in the previous month. In the first quarter, industrial production increased 2.5% from the previous quarter.

Eurozone investor confidence weakened notably in May wiping out expectations for an economic revival after the war in Ukraine, although the currency bloc weathered the winter months, a closely watched survey revealed.

The investor confidence index unexpectedly fell to -13.1 in May from -8.7 in April, the behavioral research institute Sentix said. The score was forecast to improve to -8.0.