European stocks ended on a mixed note on Friday, with most of the markets in the region paring early gains and settling around previous closing levels. Investors digested a slew of regional and U.S. economic data, and continued to assess the prospects of interest rate cuts by central banks.
The pan European Stoxx 600 ended up by 0.14%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 climbed 0.91%, while Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 ended lower by 0.13% and 0.16%, respectively. Switzerland's SMI dropped 0.75%.
Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed higher.
Finland, Greece, Iceland and Poland ended weak, while Netherlands settled flat.
In the UK market, Fresnillo rallied nearly 8% thanks to the bullion extending its record surge. Glencore, Anglo American Plc, SSE and Taylor Wimpey climbed 3 to 5%.
BP gained about 3% amid reports of potential interest from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
Antofagasta, Royal Dutch Shell, BAE Systems, Rio Tinto, National Grid, Natwest Group, United Utilities, BT, Centrica, Severn Trent, Entain, Persimmon, Scottish Mortgage, Barratt Developments and Coca-Cola gained 1 to 3%.
Easyjet, Ocado Group, St. James's Place, The Sage Group, RightMove, JD Sports Fashion, RS Group, Burberry Group, Prudential, Marks & Spencer, Diploma, IHG and Informa lost 1 to 4%.
In the German market, RWE climbed nearly 4%. Rheinmetall, MTU Aero Engines, E.ON, Deutsche Bank and Merck closed higher by 0.8 to 2%.
Puma ended lower by about 4.6%. Sartorius, Infineon, BMW, Adidas, Symrise, Siemens Healthineers, Porsche and BASF lost 1 to 3%.
In the French market, TotalEnergies, Thales and Engie gained 1.5 to 2%. Societe Generale moved higher after announcing a deal to sell its professional equipment financing business to rival BPCE for €1.1bn.
Alstom, Dassault Sytemes, Essilor, Kering, WorldLine, Edenred, LVMH and Hermes International ended notably lower.
On the economic front, Eurozone inflation expectations remained unchanged across all horizons and real economic growth for 2024 was marginally lowered, the Survey of Professional Forecasters from the European Central Bank showed.
Headline inflation is expected to fall to 2% in both 2025 and 2026 from 2.4% in 2024. Likewise, expectations for core inflation that excludes energy and food were also remained unchanged at 2.6% in 2024, 2.1% in 2025 and 2% in 2026.
German consumer price inflation eased to the lowest level in nearly three years, as initially estimated in March amid lower costs for food and energy, final data from Destatis revealed. Consumer price inflation slowed to 2.2% in March from 2.5% in February.
France's consumer price inflation slowed to the lowest in two-and-a-half years, as initially estimated in March, the latest data from the statistical office INSEE showed.
The consumer price index, or CPI, posted an annual increase of 2.3% in March, following February's 3% rise.
The UK economy posted a meagre growth in February, the Office for National Statistics said in its report.
Real gross domestic product edged up 0.1% on a monthly basis in February, following a revised 0.3% expansion in January.
In February, services output growth softened to 0.1% from 0.3%. Meanwhile, industrial production was the largest contributor to the growth, which climbed 1.1%, reversing a revised 0.3% fall.
On a yearly basis, GDP posted a decline of 0.2% in February, which was better than economists' forecast of 0.4% contraction.
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