European Markets Close Lower As Bank, Mining Stocks Fall

(RTTNews) - European stocks closed broadly lower on Tuesday as investors focused on earnings and looked ahead earnings updates from major U.S. tech firm, and more economic data.

Meanwhile, banking jitters returned to the fore after U.S. lender First Republic Bank said its deposits tumbled more than $100 billion last quarter and that it was exploring options such as restructuring its balance sheet.

Bank and mining stocks were among the notable losers.

The pan European Stoxx 600 ended 0.4% down. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 drifted down 0.27% and France's CAC 40 lost 0.56%. Germany's DAX edged up 0.05% and Switzerland's SMI gained 0.4%.

Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Turkiye closed with sharp to moderate losses.

Iceland ended higher, while Ireland and Portugal closed flat.

In the UK market, Associated British Foods lost more than 4% after reporting a 3% drop in first-hafl profit. Glencore, Anglo American Plc, Dowlais Group and Rio Tinto ended lower by 3 to 4%.

Centrica, Antofagasta, Natwest Group, B&M European Value Retail, Barclays, Scottish Mortgage, Shell, Lloyds Banking Group and Next lost 1 to 2.7%.

Standard Chartered declined sharply after its CEO Bill Winters warned that the banking sector may face fresh issues.

Whitbread rallied 4.25%. Imperial Brands gained a little over 2%, and Entain advanced nearly 2%. Vodafone Group, GSK, British American Tobacco and St. James Place gained 1.5 to 1.8%.

In the German market, Deutsche Bank lost nearly 4%. Sartorius, Commerzbank, Deutsche Post, Merck, Zalando, Henkel and Siemens Healthineers ended lower by 2 to 3%.

Covestro, Fresenius, MTU Aero Engines, Brenntag and Continental also ended notably lower.

Daimler Truck Holding gained nearly 3% after reporting Q1 preliminary results above expectations. SAP ended higher by 2.3%. Deutsche Boerse gained about 1.8%, while Siemens and RWE both ended higher by about 1.2%.

In Paris, Societe Generale lost more than 3%. BNP Paribas, Vivendi, Airbus Group, Michelin, Vinci, Credit Agricole, Bouygues, LVMH, Publicis Groupe, ArcelorMittal and Veloia drifted down 1 to 2.3%.

Sanofi, Schneider Electric and Legrand gained 1.3 to 1.8%. Alstom rallied more than 2% after it won a contract valued at around 900 million euros ($994.9 million) to supply trams to Quebec City, Canada.

In the Swiss market, UBS Group shares drifted down more than 2%. The banking major reported sharply lower profit in its first quarter due to increased U.S. litigation provision and weak revenues.

Shares of drug maker Novartis climbed more than 4% after raising its full-year earnings outlook. Engineering firm ABB rallied 3.5% after raising its full-year guidance for sales and profit.

On the economic front, the UK budget deficit widened sharply to the second highest level for the month of March taking the overall borrowing for the financial year ending March 2023 to the fourth biggest on record, official data revealed Tuesday.

Excluding banks, public sector net borrowing increased by GBP 16.3 billion from the previous year to GBP 21.5 billion in March, the Office for National Statistics reported. This was the second highest March borrowing since monthly records began in 1993.

In the financial year ending March, the budget registered a shortfall of GBP 139.2 billion, which was equivalent to 5.5 percent of gross domestic product.

Switzerland's trade surplus increased to CHF 8.28 billion in the first quarter from CHF 6.39 billion in the fourth quarter of the previous year, due to the rebound in exports, data from the Federal Customs Administration showed.