European stocks choppy as Fed, BOJ meetings begin

European stocks reversed early losses to trade higher Tuesday as global investors awaited the outcomes of separate policy meetings of the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan.

Fed ahead

The pan-European STOXX 600 was up around 0.18 percent. The German DAX was the best performing index, up around 0.50 percent, helped by a rise in Bayer shares.

Bayer was in positive territory after it said it now expects higher revenues and earnings over the next few years, after announcing a planned $66 billion takeover of Monsanto.

Meanwhile, investors were pausing for breath as the U.S. Federal Reserve starts a two-day meeting on Tuesday, although the chances of a rate hike at this meeting are slim following a deluge of disappointing U.S. data.

The central bank will make a policy announcement on Wednesday at the end of its meeting. Market consensus is for the Fed to hold its base rate at 0.25-0.50 percent.

BOJ meet

In Asia, the Bank of Japan is also starting a two-day policy meeting and there is more market uncertainty about what the bank could announce.

The BOJ has promised a comprehensive assessment of its current quantitative easing and negative interest rate policies and could surprise markets with a new raft of easing measures.

Asia markets traded mixed on Tuesday, with traders likely taking to the sidelines to await the monetary policy decisions.

GSK appoints new boss

In stocks news, Unicredit shares were flat after the lender received seven-to-eight preliminary offers for its asset manager Pioneer Investments, according to Il Sole 24 Ore.

U.K. supermarkets were in focus after the release of industry data which showed Tesco’s market share falling in the 12 weeks to September 11. Tesco’s sales were down 0.2 percent in this period, according to Kantar, but shares were trading higher. Rival Sainsbury’s however, saw sales fall 1.4 percent sending shares lower.

Shares of pharmaceutical giant GSK were in negative territory after the company appointed Emma Walmsley as the new chief executive officer, replacing current boss Andrew Witty when he retires in March 2017.

Kingfisher, the owner of B&Q in the U.K., reported a rise in pre-tax profit for the first half of the year, sending shares of the firm higher.

Source: CNBC