In a notable advancement for European stock markets, trading on Wednesday propelled the Stoxx Europe 600 index to increase by 0.43%. Additional gains were observed as the Swiss Market Index climbed by an impressive 1.20%, while France's CAC rose by 0.79%. The FTSE in London experienced a solid uptick of 0.56%, and Germany's DAX showed resilience with a closing increase of 0.38%.
This bullish performance comes alongside a release from Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU, which stated that seasonally adjusted GDP in the euro area and the European Union saw an incremental rise of 0.3% in the second quarter in comparison to the previous quarter. Year-on-year assessments exhibit stronger performance, with GDP rising by 0.6% in the euro area and 0.8% within the EU. However, not all indicators reflected positive trends; Eurostat reported a slight decrease in seasonally adjusted industrial production of 0.1% within the euro area for June, with a steady state observed in the EU for the same period.
Year-over-year, industrial production faced a significant decline, showing a decrease of 3.9% in the euro area and 3.2% in the EU compared to June 2023. In the UK, inflationary pressures remain evident, with the Consumer Prices Index noting a year-on-year increase of 2.2% in July, up from 2.0% in June, as released by the Office for National Statistics.
France's statistics, from the Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies, reflected a consumer price index increase of 0.2% from June to July, translating to an annual rise of 2.3% solely compared to July of the previous year, marking a slight uptick from June’s annual rise of 2.2%. Turning to corporate developments, shares of Flutter Entertainment, a gambling powerhouse headquartered in Ireland, soared nearly 11% during Wednesday trading in London after the company reported its Q2 adjusted earnings and revenues that significantly exceeded analyst expectations.
This exemplified strong operational performance within a challenging market. Conversely, shares of UBS rose over 5% on the Swiss Exchange, buoyed by an announcement made by its chief financial officer during the earnings call. UBS disclosed its agreement to sell Credit Suisse's US Mortgage Servicing business, although the financial terms of the transaction remain undisclosed. In stark contrast to the positive highlights of some companies, German energy giant RWE saw its shares tumble nearly 6% in Frankfurt.
The decline came following the announcement of H1 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, which dropped to 2.90 billion euros ($3.2 billion) from a higher 4.14 billion euros in the same period last year. On the financial front, Citigroup is reportedly planning to elevate the bonus limit for certain top bankers in the UK, potentially up to six times their base salary.
As per Bloomberg News, this development, stemming from an internal memo, marks a significant shift from an earlier policy that capped bonuses at twice the fixed salary of these employees. Citigroup has not provided immediate commentary regarding these claims from MT Newswires..