European stocks trimmed early losses at the close today after the European Central Bank held interest rates as expected, while downbeat reports from institutions such as Standard Chartered weighed on the index.
The European STOXX 600 index closed 0.5 percent lower. The automobile manufacturing sector led the sectoral losses.
The European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged at four percent, ending an unprecedented series of rate hikes ten times in a row.
According to , the health care sector was among the weakest performing sectors, as the shares of the Swiss dental implant company Straumann fell nearly ten percent after the American company Align Technology lowered its expectations for revenues for the full year.
A group of pessimistic results also affected the index, as Siemens Energy shares fell 35.5 percent to record low levels after the German company said that it was in talks with the government regarding receiving government guarantees after huge setbacks in the company’s wind energy sector.
Standard Chartered shares stumbled 12.4 percent, with the bank’s third-quarter pre-tax profits falling 33 percent, while a decline in commercial revenues pushed BNP Paribas shares to decline 2.6 percent.
The automobile manufacturing sector fell 2.1 percent, affected by a decline in the shares of the German company Mercedes-Benz after a decline in third-quarter profits, and a decline in the shares of the Swedish company Volvo Cars by 9.5 percent.
LSEG data showed that analysts in general expect the gains of the European STOXX 600 index to decline by 9.7 percent in the third quarter, which is a greater percentage than the 6.6 percent expected in early July.
