Europe close: Stocks end lower amid mixed earnings reports
European stocks were lower on Wednesday as investors mulled the implications of the latest UK Budget and mulled mixed earnings reports.
"Rishi Sunak has delivered a welcome boost to the leisure and hospitality sector, with a temporary cut in business rates coming alongside a reduction in alcohol taxes," said IG senior market analyst Josh Mahony.
"However, the prospect of fiscal tightening does raise questions over the seemingly impending BoE rate hike. In the US, tech stocks have outperformed thanks to a raft of better-than-expected earnings figure.2
The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was down 0.36% at 474.04 by the close of trading with all of the main regional bourses lower.
Germany's Dax gave back 0.33% to 15,705.81, while the FTSE Mibtel lost 0.61% to end at 26,806.19.
Also dragging on investor sentiment, overnight shares in coal firms drove China equities down after Beijing's latest move to address skyrocketing coal prices.
Officials on Monday said they would investigate energy price index providers, urging industry participants to "strictly" meet contractual obligations.
In equity news, shares in gambling group Kindred slumped after the company said gross winnings revenue in the first 24 days of October had been negatively impacted by the closure of services to Dutch residents and an “exceptionally weak sports betting margin”.
Deutsche Bank shares fell 7% after reporting a fall in revenues at its investment banking unit but still beating expectations to post its fifth consecutive quarter of profit.
Admiral stock fell after Munich Re sold 12.1m shares in the UK insurer in a placing.
Shares in Swiss banking software specialist Temenos soared on reports that EQT is exploring a potential acquisition.
French reinsurer SCOR surged 12% as the company reported a 151% rise in income for the first nine months of 2021. Global payments firm Worldline also gained as it reported a rise in third quarter revenues.
Homeserve shares were up after the home repairs company said it had bought insurance industry repairs outsourcer CET Structures for £53m.
Shares in German sportswear company Puma rose as the company reported better-than-forecast third quarter profits but advised people to shop early for Christmas as supply bottlenecks and manufacturing disruptions would mean a shortage of its products well into 2022.