European stocks started off strong but ultimately closed lower on Monday as investors cautiously awaited the impending U.S. inflation data, as well as other economic reports from the U.S and Europe.
According to several Federal Reserve officials last week, the expectation is that U.S. interest rates will be upheld at high levels until there is substantial evidence of a deceleration in inflation. There is eager anticipation about Federal Chair Jerome Powell's upcoming speech for a more detailed explanation regarding the Fed's rate plans.
In other news, China's consumer inflation showed an upward trajectory for the third consecutive month in April, whereas there was a decline in the producer price index for the 19th month in a row, data disclosed earlier today.
European stock indices closed with marginal changes. The Stoxx 600 edged up by 0.02%, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 ended down at 0.22%, Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 descended slightly by 0.16% and 0.12% respectively while Switzerland's SMI closed up by 0.12%.
Several other markets in Europe, including Belgium, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, and Turkey, had a weak closing. On the other hand, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, and Spain closed higher whereas Austria had a neutral closure.
Among UK stocks, BAE Systems suffered a loss of 3.2%. Several others like Anglo American Plc, Phoenix Group Holdings, Admiral Group, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, RS Group, Ocado Group, Frasers Group, Intertek Group, Howden Joinery and Bunzl witnessed a decline between 1.4 to 2.5%.
However, Diploma experienced a 4% rally after the technical product supplier presented impressive half-year results and lifted its sales and earnings projections. Other gainers included BT Group, 3i Group, Kingfisher, Whitbread, British American Tobacco, Sainsbury (J) and Smith (DS) who managed to yield 1 to 1.5%.
Moving to the German market, a loss of 1 to 2.5% was observed in shares of Deutsche Boerse, Infineon, Zalando, Munich Re, and HeidelbergCement. Meanwhile, Porsche, Continental, Volkswagen, Bayer and BMW shares jumped significantly.
In France, Sanofi shares went up by more than 1.5% after the pharmaceutical giant announced a plan of investing over 1 billion euros to augment new bioproduction capacity across its various French sites. Unfortunately, Airbus Group, Safran, Pernod Ricard, Engie, and Publicis Groupe suffered a loss of 1 to 1.6%.
Despite these losses, Teleperformance and Stellantis made gains of over 4%, while Renault, Edenred, Carrefour, Societe Generale and Credit Agricole managed to increase their share value between 1 to 2%.