European Markets Finished Mostly Higher After Choppy Session

(RTTNews) - The majority of the European markets ended Thursday's session with modest gains. Following the strong performance of the previous two session, today's performance was relatively flat. Trading action was choppy Thursday, as markets fluctuated back and forth between gains and losses.

Banks had been among the strongest performing stocks during the previous two sessions, but were under pressure today. A sharp sell-off in shares of Banco Popular triggered a drop in the rest of the Spanish banks.

The Bank of England plans to introduce additional capital requirements for big banks, according to the record of the Financial Policy Committee meeting held in May.

The FPC recommended to set the threshold for systemic importance above which a non-zero systemic risk buffer rate would apply at GBP 175 billion of total assets. Above this threshold, it should adopt a graduated approach.

The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks increased 0.31 percent, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major U.K. companies, lost 0.02 percent.

The DAX of Germany climbed 0.66 percent and the CAC 40 of France rose 0.69 percent. The FTSE 100 of the U.K. gained 0.04 percent and the SMI of Switzerland finished higher by 0.76 percent.

In Frankfurt, ThyssenKrupp advanced 3.74 percent and Salzgitter climbed 3.76 percent.

BMW increased 2.27 percent and Daimler rose 1.46 percent. Volkswagen also finished higher by 0.74 percent.

In Paris, AXA Group finished higher by 0.94 percent after the insurer said it would sell all its equity holdings in tobacco immediately, representing just over 180 million euros.

Renault gained 2.66 percent and Peugeot added 2.68 percent. Car parts maker Valeo also closed up by 1.88 percent.

In London, food ingredients maker Tate & Lyle gained 1.63 percent after reporting a rise in fiscal 2016 pretax profit.

Water utility United Utilities Group dropped 1.04 percent after reporting a substantial drop in full-year underlying profits.

Daily Mail and General Trust plunged 10.81 percent. The company reported a decline in first-half profit and warned that a weak print advertising market will squeeze margins in the media business.

Phone group Telecom Italia climbed 4.15 percent in Milan after its shareholders voted in favor of a special award plan for its CEO Flavio Cattaneo and other top managers.

Banco Popular plunged 26.49 percent in Madrid on worries over earnings, after the bank announced plans to raise up to 2.5 billion euros through a share issue to strengthen its balance sheet.

The U.K. economy expanded as initially estimated in the first quarter, the second estimates from the Office for National Statistics showed Thursday.

Gross domestic product grew 0.4 percent in the first quarter from previous three months, unrevised from the estimate published on April 27. It was slower than the 0.6 percent expansion posted in the fourth quarter of 2015.

UK mortgage approvals declined more-than-expected to its lowest level in over a year in April, after the stamp duty hike, figures from the British Bankers' Association said Thursday. The number of loans approved for house purchase declined sharply to 40,104 from 43,854 in March, revised from 45,096. Economists had forecast 44,700 approvals.

The Spanish economy expanded as estimated in the first quarter, final data from the statistical office INE showed Thursday. Gross domestic product grew 0.8 percent sequentially in the first three months of 2016, in line with flash estimate. The economy had expanded 0.8 percent each in the previous two quarters.

First-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits decreased for the second straight week in the week ended May 21st, according to a report released by the Labor Department on Thursday. The report said initial jobless claims fell to 268,000, a decrease of 10,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 278,000. Economists had expected claims to edge down to 275,000.

Partly reflecting a jump in orders for commercial aircraft and parts, the Commerce Department released a report on Thursday showing that new orders for U.S. manufactured goods surged up by much more than expected in April.

The Commerce Department said durable goods orders shot up by 3.4 percent in April after climbing by an upwardly revised 1.9 percent in March. Economists had expected orders to rise by just 0.3 percent compared to the 0.8 percent increase that had been reported for the previous month.

With the South and West seeing sharp increases, the National Association of Realtors released a report on Thursday showing that U.S. pending home sales jumped much more than expected in April to their highest level in a decade.

NAR said its pending home sales index surged up by 5.1 percent to 116.3 in April after climbing by 1.6 percent to an upwardly revised 110.7 in March. Economists had expected the index to increase by just 0.8 percent.