European shares recovered from a weak start to trade higher on Wednesday, as a slew of corporate earnings beat expectations and data showed German consumer price inflation slowed as initially estimated in July.
German consumer price inflation slowed to 7.5 percent from 7.6 percent in June, final data from Destatis revealed – matching the flash estimate published on July 28. In May, headline inflation hit a record high 7.9 percent.
Investors await key U.S. consumer price inflation reading for July later in the day for further direction.
After U.S. job growth rose much more than expected in July, traders are now pricing in a roughly 69 percent chance of the Fed raising rates by 75 basis points (bps) at its September FOMC meeting.
Closer home, the European Central Bank is expected to raise rates by 50 bps in September.
The pan European Stoxx 600 was marginally higher at 436.32 after declining 0.7 percent on Tuesday.
The German DAX rose 0.3 percent, while France’s CAC 40 index and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 were marginally higher.
Danish wind turbine maker Vestas soared 10 percent after saying it would sell its converters and control panels business to KK Wind Solutions.
Supermarket major Ahold Delhaize jumped 7.6 percent after raising its full-year EPS and free cash flow guidance.
ABN Amro rallied 3.1 percent. The Dutch bank reported quarterly profit that beat analyst expectations despite rising costs.
Prudential rose over 1 percent. The British insurer warned of challenging conditions for the rest of the year after posting an 8 percent rise in first-half operating profit.
Aviva jumped more than 9 percent. The insurer unveiled plans to return more cash to shareholders after posting better-than-expected earnings for the first-half of the year.
Similarly, Admiral Group surged 4.7 percent after delivering a solid set of interim results.
Holiday group TUI gained 1 percent after its EBIT loss narrowed for the third quarter of fiscal 2022.
Sixt SE, a German car rental company, slumped 5.6 percent despite reporting higher second-quarter profit and revenues.
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