European Shares Mostly Higher In Cautious Trade

European stocks were mostly higher on Wednesday as Russia-Ukraine tensions eased.

A cautious undertone prevailed after Kyiv blamed Russia for a series of cyberattacks and U.S. President Joe Biden said the country had not verified the move on troop returning.

As inflation worries mount, focus shifted to the U.S. macro data with the latest retail sales numbers for January as well as the latest FOMC minutes, due out later in the day.

Euro zone government bond yields rose, with Germany’s 10-year government bond yield hitting a new high since December 2018, after two European Central Bank officials made the case for ending the ECB’s bond-buying scheme.

The pan European Stoxx 600 rose 0.3 percent to 468.93 after gaining 1.4 percent in the previous session.

The German DAX and France’s CAC 40 were also up around 0.3 percent, while the U.K.’s FTSE 100 slipped 0.2 percent om expectations of an another interest-rate increase next month.

Ericsson plunged 10 percent after the Swedish telecoms giant said an internal investigation in 2019 found serious breaches of its compliance rules in Iraq.

Tobacco group Swedish Match jumped 6.4 percent after reporting a rise in quarterly profits.

Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo declined 1.4 percent after it reached an agreement with Nextalia SGR to create a new education, training and digital- learning company.

Indivior surged 9.4 percent in London. After posting a better-than-expected rise in annual sales, the pharmaceutical firm said it is exploring a secondary listing in the United States, its biggest market.

Natural extracts and ingredients supplier Treatt dropped 1.3 percent after appointing Ryan Govender as chief financial officer-designate.

Primary Health Properties added 1.7 percent after posting strong FY21 results.

French industrial gases company Air Liquide rallied 3 percent after forecasting a bigger profit for 2022.

MTU Aero Engines shares gained 2.3 percent. The German aircraft engine manufacturer lifted dividend after reporting that its fourth-quarter net income surged to 41 million euros from last year’s 6 million euros.

In economic releases, data showed U.K. consumer price inflation accelerated at the fastest pace in nearly 30 years in January, boosting bets for a hike in interest rates for a third meeting in a row.

Consumer price inflation rose slightly to 5.5 percent in January from 5.4 percent in December. The rate was forecast to remain unchanged at 5.4 percent.

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