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BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (Alliance News) - Following the weak performance of the previous session, the European markets ended Wednesday's session with modest gains.
Investor sentiment received a boost from easing concerns over the Italian budget.
The Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that the government estimates a budget deficit of 2.4% of GDP for 2019, and then slash it to 2.2% for 2020. Italian bond yields fell after the report, which provided a boost to shares of Italian bank stocks.
The pan-European Stoxx Europe 600 index advanced 0.5%. The Euro Stoxx 50 index of eurozone bluechip stocks increased 0.5%, while the Stoxx Europe 50 index, which includes some major UK companies, added 0.8%.
The DAX of Germany was closed for a holiday and the CAC of France rose 0.4%. The FTSE 100 of the UK gained 0.5% and the SMI of Switzerland finished higher by 1.0%.
In London, Vodafone Group advanced 1.6% after it acquired spectrum in Italy to enable the deployment of new 5G technology for a total cost of EUR2.4 billion.
Grocer Tesco tumbled 8.6% after reporting its first-half results.
STV Group rallied 2.1%. The media firm said Chief Financial Officer George Watt would be leaving at the end of March to pursue a non-executive career following 20 years with the company.
The euro area private sector expanded at the slowest pace in four months in September on weak manufacturing activity, survey data from IHS Markit showed Wednesday. The final composite output index dropped to 54.1 in September from 54.5 in August and slightly below the flash estimate of 54.2.
Eurozone retail sales dropped unexpectedly in August reflecting the weakness in food turnover, figures from Eurostat revealed Wednesday. Retail sales decreased 0.2% month-on-month, following a 0.6% drop in July. Economists had forecast a 0.2% increase for August. This was the second consecutive fall in sales.
British service sector growth remained strong in September, but the pace of expansion eased moderately since August, survey data from IHS Markit showed Wednesday. The IHS Markit/Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply services Purchasing Managers' Index dropped to 53.9 in September from 54.3 in August. The score was also below the forecast of 54.0.
UK shop prices increased for the second consecutive month in September after five years of deflation, data from British Retail Consortium showed Wednesday. The shop price index climbed 0.2% year-on-year in September, following a 0.1% rise in August.
Reflecting strong job growth in both the goods-producing and service-providing sectors, payroll processor ADP released a report on Wednesday showing a much bigger than expected increase in US private sector employment in the month of September.
ADP said private sector employment jumped by 230,000 jobs in September after climbing by an upwardly revised 168,000 jobs in August.
Economists had expected employment to increase by about 185,000 jobs compared to the addition of 163,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
