European Equities Close Mostly Higher on Friday; Eurozone Business Activity Grows for 10th Straight Month
European stock markets closed mostly higher in Friday trading as The Stoxx Europe rose 0.20%, Germany's DAX gained 0.17%, and the FTSE in London was up 0.66%, while the CAC in Paris and the Swiss Market Index ended the week little changed.
The seasonally-adjusted HCOB Flash Eurozone Composite PMI Output index compiled by S&P Global, which gauges business activity in Europe, rose to 52.2 in October from 51.2 in September, and remained above the 50.0 no-change mark for the 10th straight month.
"While the economic situation in Germany brightened significantly in October, the rate of contraction has accelerated for two months in a row in France," Hamburg Commercial Bank Chief Economist Cyrus de la Rubia said in a statement. "As a result, economic growth in the eurozone, even though accelerating a bit, has been much weaker than it otherwise could have been."
In the UK, the Office for National Statistics reported that retail sales rose an estimated 0.9% in Q3 compared with Q2, and attributed the increase to good weather in July and August. Retail sales volumes grew an estimated 0.5% in September, after rising 0.6% the previous month, the ONS said, noting that computer and telecommunications retailers' sales volumes rose "strongly."
And in corporate news, NatWest Group shares increased nearly 5% on the FTSE in London after it reported Q3 earnings Friday of 0.196 British pound ($0.26) per share, up from 0.14 pound a year earlier. Total income for the quarter ended Sept. 30, expressed as the sum of net interest income and noninterest income, was 4.33 billion pounds, up from 3.74 billion pounds a year earlier.
Source : Mtnewswires.com
