European Stocks Close Mixed After Cautious Session

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed on a mixed note on Friday with investors mostly making cautious moves amid escalating tensions in the Middle East and continued uncertainty about Federal Reserve's interest rate trajectory.

Tensions are rising in the Middle East in the aftermath of Israel's retaliatory strikes against Iran.

Following hawkish comments from Federal Reserve officials, investors have scaled back their expectations for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates this year.

Now, most market participants believe that the U.S. central bank will wait until September to cut its key interest rate.

The pan European Stoxx 600 ended down 0.08%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.24%, Germany's DAX drifted down 0.56% and France's CAC 40 edged down 0.01%. Switzerland's SMI climbed 0.59%.

Among other markets in Europe, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Poland, Russia and Turkiye closed higher.

Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain and Sweden ended weak, while Austria, Belgium and Czech Republic closed flat.

In the UK market, Mondi soared 9.3%. The British packaging company decided against bidding for DS Smith, who had agreed to a 5.8 billion pound deal with International Paper. DS Smith's shares tanked more than 10%.

Rentokil Initial gained about 2.4%, and Coca-Cola HBC advanced nearly 2%.

Entain, Compass Group, United Utilities, Imperial Brands, Severn Trent, Haleon, St. James's Place, Intertek Group, Unilever, Barclays and Easyjet gained 1 to 1.6%.

JD Sports Fashion ended down by 2.8%. B&M European Value Retail, Marks & Spencer, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Scottish Mortgage, RS Group, Melrose Industries and Barratt Developments lost 1 to 2%.

In the German market, Symrise, Vonovia, Qiagen, Fresenius, Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Bank, E.ON and Alliance posted moderate gains.

Sartorius, Infineon, Covestro, Continental, SAP, Rheinmetall, HeidelbergCement, BASF, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Daimler Truck Holding ended lower by 1 to 2.5%.

In Paris, L'Oreal rallied 5% after the company reported stronger than expected sales in the first quarter. Sanofi, Orange, Pernod Ricard and Credit Agricole posted sharp to moderate gains.

WorldLine dropped about 7%. Edenred lost nearly 7%. Schneider Electric, STMicroElectronics, Renault, Saint Gobain, Safran and Essilor lost 1 to 3.2%.

On the economic front, Germany's producer prices continued to decline in March, though at the slowest pace in nine months, data published by Destatis showed.

Producer prices registered an annual decrease of 2.9% after declining 4.1% in January. Prices have been falling since July 2023.

UK retail sales were unchanged on a month-on-month basis in March, defying expectations for a gain, preliminary data from the Office for National Statistics showed.

Retail sales including automotive fuel grew 0.1% in the previous month. Economists were looking for a 0.3% gain for March.