European Equities Mixed in Wednesday Trading; Trading Soft as Investors Await US Fed Decision
The European stock markets closed mixed Wednesday, with subdued trading as investors look ahead to the US Federal Reserve's interest rate decision later in the day.
The Stoxx Europe was unchanged, Germany's DAX was down 0.22%, the FTSE 100 gained 0.14%, France's CAC declined 0.37%, and the Swiss Market Index was off 0.07%.
The European Central Bank is expected to leave interest rates unchanged through 2026, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing economists the media outlet polled. All 96 economists it surveyed said the ECB will hold the deposit rate at 2% next week, with 80% believing rates would remain unchanged through the middle of next year, Reuters reported.
And in corporate news, Ryanair's legal action against a European Commission decision to approve a restructuring aid of 2.55 billion euros ($2.97 billion) granted by Portugal to local airline TAP has been dismissed, the EU General Court said Wednesday.
The court rejected Ryanair's claims that "the Commission had, in breach of the R&R Guidelines, failed to establish that the restructuring plan was realistic, coherent, far-reaching and capable of restoring TAP's long-term viability," the court said.
Ryanair said in a statement sent in response to MT Newswires' request for comment that the EU has previously ruled that billions of euros in aid received by European carriers such as SAS, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM and others were unlawful. But it said the European Commission has yet to recover the "unlawful aid" nor "imposed any measures to remedy the damage to competition."
Shares of the Irish airline gained 0.3% in Dublin.
Shell intends to end a partnership with Russia's Rosneft via which the two companies jointly own a stake in a pipeline from Kazakhstan, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, quoting unnamed sources.
If the process is completed, Shell would still keep the stake in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, instead of owning it jointly with Rosneft, the report said.
Source : Mtnewswires.com
