European Stocks Close Higher After Cautious Session

European stocks closed higher on Monday with investors continuing to react to quarterly earnings updates, and looking ahead to inflation data from U.S. and Eurozone for further clarity on the outlook for interest rates.

Investors also looking ahead to the China-U.S. summit meeting to be held on the sidelines of the APEC meetings.

European Central Bank’s President Luis De Guindos said the labor market is beginning to weaken and the central bank will be in a better position to reassess the inflation outlook in December.

The pan European Stoxx 600 gained 0.75%. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 climbed 0.89%, Germany’s DAX jumped 0.73% and France’s CAC surged 0.6%, while Switzerland’s SMI ended 0.33% up.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Sweden closed higher.

Iceland, Poland and Turkiye ended weak.

In the UK market, Phoenix Holdings rallied nearly 6% after the insurer lifted its full-year cash generation targets.

Easyjet, Just Eat Takeaway.com, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Melrose Industries, British American Tobacco, Rentokil Initial, Smith & Nephew, Auto Trader Group, Carnival Plc, Legal & General and Aviva gained 2 to 3.5%.

British Land Company shares gained more than 2% after the company posted solid first-half results.

Tullow Oil climbed 6.25% after the company said it has entered into a $400 million five-year notes facility agreement with Glencore Energy U.K. Limited.

Entain drifted down 3.7%. Informa, Experian, Johnson Matthey and Royal Mail ended with sharp to moderate losses.

In Germany, Siemens Energy climbed 5.6%. Fresenius Medical Care and Fresnius gained 3.75% and 3%, respectively.

Commerzbank ended nearly 3% up. Brenntag, Qiagen, Hannover Rueck, Siemnes, Volkswagen, Continental and Deutsche Bank also posted strong gains.

Puma ended nearly 3% down. Sartorius and Zalando closed lower by about 2% and 1.3%, respectively. E.ON and Adidas also ended notably lower.

In the French market, Alstom, Societe Generale, Thales, Stellantis, AXA, Airbus Group, Carrefour, TotalEnergies, Safran, Bouygues and ArcelorMittal gained 1 to 2.2%.

Danish pharmaceutical company Nordist rallied 2.5% after a trial showed its weight-loss drug Wegovy cut the risk of death by 18%. However, the stock failed to hold gains and ended the session just 0.3% up.

In economic news, UK house prices dropped in November reflecting a usual fall during this time of the year as sellers priced properties more competitively to attract buyers in the lead-up to Christmas, property website Rightmove said.

House prices fell 1.7% in November, in contrast to the 0.5% gain in October. Average asking prices totaled GBP 362,143 in November.

Although this year’s November fall was the largest in five years, key indicators point to a year that so far has been better than many anticipated, Rightmove said. The year-on-year decline in house prices deepened to 1.3% from 0.8% in October.

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