Stocks in Europe close mixed as euro zone GDP beats expectations
Stocks in Europe closed in mixed territory on Tuesday, as investors weighed signs of economic growth in the euro zone against weaker-than-expected Chinese data.
The pan-European Stoxx 600 dipped just below the flatline at the closing bell, with sectors and major bourses pointing in opposite directions.
Europe’s basic resources stocks— with their heavy exposure to China— led the losses, down 1.5%. Glencore was among the sector’s worst performers, trading almost 3% lower at the end of the session.
Looking at individual stocks, chipmaker AMS surged to the top of the European benchmark during morning trade. It comes after the Apple supplier reported an upbeat outlook for the second quarter, driven by a rising number of Android smartphones using its 3D optical sensors. Shares of the Austrian group jumped 21% on the news.
Meanwhile, Danske Bank tumbled to the bottom of the index, after the embattled lender posted earnings below expectations and slashed its outlook for the remainder of the year. Shares of Denmark’s biggest bank dipped by almost 10%.
British oil giant BP reported earnings largely in line with expectations Tuesday morning. The London-based oil and gas firm said first-quarter underlying replacement cost profit, used as a proxy for net profit, came in at $2.4 billion, versus $2.3 billion expected in a Reuters poll. Shares of BP were 1% higher.
Elsewhere, Standard Chartered’s shares rose 4.5% after the bank unveiled plans for a $1 billion share buyback scheme. The announcement came as the company posted a 10% rise in quarterly profit.
Shares of Airbus were almost 1% lower after the aerospace group posted slightly higher than expected core first-quarter profits.
On the data front, euro zone economic growth came in stronger-than-anticipated over the first three months of the year, while unemployment fell to its lowest level in more than a decade.
Official data from the EU’s statistics office Eurostat said a preliminary estimate of first-quarter GDP (gross domestic product) rose 0.4%, up from 0.2% in the final three months of 2018.
Official and private business surveys published Tuesday showed the manufacturing sector in the world’s second-largest economy expanded at a slower pace than analysts had expected in April. The weak data, which also showed a slower rate of growth in Beijing’s services sector, added to economic uncertainty.
Stateside, the U.S. central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is due to announce its latest monetary policy decision on Wednesday. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to hold interest rates steady, as it seeks to balance robust economic growth against low inflation.
Stocks on Wall Street were trading lower on Tuesday, as investor sentiment was dented by a weak revenue report from Google parent company Alphabet.
Source: CNBC
