European Stocks Close Lower After Cautious Session

(RTTNews) - Despite fading concerns about the impact of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus on global economic recovery, European stocks closed lower on Wednesday as traders chose to take some profits at several top counters after recent strong gains.

Investors, presumably turned a bit cautious as they digested more updates about the new variant, and weighed the effectiveness of existing vaccines. South African scientists have warned the variant cut significantly the antibody protection generated by the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine.

Pfizer and BioNTech announced the 3rd dose of their vaccine is effective at neutralizing the omicron variant but also admitted that it may spread faster and could lead to more mutations in the future.

Geopolitical tensions also remained on investors' radar amid rising tensions between the United States and Russia regarding Ukraine.

The pan European Stoxx 600 declined 0.59%. Germany's DAX shed 0.8% and France's CAC 40 ended 0.72% down, while the U.K.'s FTSE 100 edged down 0.03%. Switzerland's SMI climbed 0.67%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain and Sweden ended weak.

Czech Republic, Denmark, Greece, Iceland and Turkey closed higher.

In the UK market, Berkeley Group Holdings shares gained nearly 3% after the company raised its profit outlook.

Admiral Group, Croda International, Flutter Entertainment, Informa, Hargreaves Lansdown, Persimmon, St. James Palace, Barratt Developments, British American Tobacco, IHG, Vodafone Group and GlaxoSmithKline gained 1 to 3%.

Darktrace shares declined 4.4%. 3I Group ended lower by about 3.3%, while DCC, Rolls-Royce Holdings, Smith & Nephew and Aveva Group lost 1.9 to 3%. Rio Tinto, BHP Group, Standard Chartered and Avraz also ended notably lower.

In the French market, STMicroElectronics declined by about 2.8% following a rating downgrade. L'Oreal declined after Swiss firm Nestle said it would cut its stake in the French cosmetics brand by selling shares worth 8.9 billion euros ($10 billion) to about 20%.

Hermes International, Pernod Ricard and Kering shed 2.4 to 2.8%. WorldLine, Unibail Rodamco, LVMH and Carrefour declined 1.3 to 1.6%.

Technip shares gained more than 2%. Safran, Veolia and Airbus advanced 1.3 to 1.4%. Michelin, Societe Generale, Renault and Air France-KLM also closed higher.

In Germany, HelloFresh plunged more than 10% after saying it expects 2022 earnings to be lower than earlier expectations.

Infineon Technologies shed about 4.6% after Morgan Stanley lowered its rating for the stock. HeidelbergCement declined 2.2%. Henkel, BASF, Puma and Adidas also ended notably lower.

Porsche Automobil rallied 3.5%. Symrise and Qiagen both gained about 1.5%. TUI AG shares recovered after a sharp plunge and ended more than 2% up. The stock tumbled more than 4% earlier in the day after reporting an annual loss of over 2 billion euros ($2.26 billion).

In economic news, data from Statistical Office Insee showed France payroll employment increased at a slower pace in the third quarter, rising 0.4% or 108,300, after rising 309,500, or 1.2% in the second quarter.

This increase comes essentially from private payroll employment which increased by 0.5% or +95,200 jobs after having strongly increased in the second quarter, the Insee said.

In total, payroll employment at the end of September was 1% above its end of 2019 level.