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European stocks closed lower on Wednesday, weighed down by worries about inflation and the likely impact of Chinese real estate majors’ financial woes on growth.<\/p>\n
Markets also noted UK’s budget that contained proposals for multi-billion pound spending on healthcare and transport, and a rise in the U.K.’s national living wage from \u00a38.91 per hour to \u00a39.50, which is set to come into effect from April 1.<\/p>\n
They also looked ahead to the European Central Bank meeting on Thursday for guidance on its pandemic bond-buying program.<\/p>\n
The pan European Stoxx 600 declined 0.36%. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 and Germany’s DAX both shed 0.33%, while France’s CAC 40 slid 0.19%. Switzerland’s SMI ended 0.49% down.<\/p>\n
Among other markets<\/span> in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Sweden closed weak.<\/p>\n Greece, Iceland and Turkey ended higher.<\/p>\n In the UK market, Admiral Group declined more than 5%. Fresnillo ended 3.5% down. Pearson, Aveva Group, Flutter Entertainment, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Kingfisher, Pershing Square Holdings, Antofagasta and Barclays Group lost 1.6 to 3%.<\/p>\n Miners Anglo American and Glencore fell 2% and 2.65%, respectively, as concerns about Chinese intervention hit metal prices. Rio Tinto and BHP Group ended lower by 1.4% and 1.3%, respectively.<\/p>\n Taylor Wimpey, Entain, SSE, Compass Group, Sainsbury (J), Persimmon, National Grid, WPP, Segro, Barratt Developments, Bunzl and Berkeley Group Holdings gained 1 to 2.7%.<\/p>\n FirstGroup gained 4.5%. The transport group said it plans to return up to 500 million pounds to its shareholders through a tender offer at 105 pence per share.<\/p>\n HomeServe climbed nearly 3%. The home repairs and improvements business<\/span> said that it has completed the acquisition of CET Structures Ltd., a digitally-enabled home emergency assistance business in the UK, for circa 53 million pounds.<\/p>\n In France, WorldLine shares plunged nearly 16% to a 52-week low. Technip declined more than 3%, Atos shed nearly 3%, Essilor slid 1.6% and Hermes International declined 1.4%.<\/p>\n Sodexo climbed nearly 5.5% after reporting stronger than expected quarterly results. Schneider Electric shares gained 2.5% after the energy management firm reported that its third-quarter revenues were 7.22 billion euros, a growth of 11.8% from last year.<\/p>\n Michelin, Faurecia, Valeo, Engie and Publicis Groupe also closed notably higher.<\/p>\n In the German market, Sartorius tumbled more than 7%. Deutsche Bank shares declined nearly 7% after core bank profit before tax declined slightly in its third quarter.<\/p>\n HelloFresh and Deutsche Wohnen lost 4% and 3.4%, respectively. Deutsche Post, Volkswagen and Qiagen lost 1 to 1.6%.<\/p>\n Puma rallied more than 3% after raising its sales and profit forecasts for the year. Fresenius gained 2.5%. Symrise, Munich RE, E.ON, RWE and Fresenius Medical Care moved up 1 to 1.7%.<\/p>\n In Spain, Banco Santander shares shed 2.85% after the lender said it is well on track to significantly outperform its profitability target for 2021.<\/p>\n In economic releases, German import price index climbed 17.7% year-on-year in September following a 16.5% rise in August, Destatits reported. Economists had forecast an 18% increase.<\/p>\n The latest inflation rate was the highest year-on-year change since August 1981, when it was 19.5%.<\/p>\n German consumer confidence is set to improve in November on increasing propensity to consume, survey results from the market research group Gfk showed. The forward-looking consumer confidence index rose to 0.9 in November from revised 0.4 in October. Economists had forecast the index to fall to -0.5.<\/p>\n The INSEE official statistics agency said that a gauge of French consumer sentiment fell 2 points to 99 in October from 101 in September.<\/p>\n U.K. shop prices slid 0.4% year-on-year in October after a 0.5% drop in the previous month, the British Retail Consortium said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Market Analysis<\/p>\n<\/div>\n