Dipo Olowookere
By Investors Hub
European stocks have moved to the upside on Wednesday as traders shrug off weak GDP data from Japan and Germany and lingering concerns surrounding Italy.
While the French CAC 40 Index is just above the unchanged line, the U.K.?s FTSE 100 Index and the German DAX Index are both up by 0.3 percent.
The British pound has risen against the dollar and euro after news that the U.K. has reached a draft Brexit deal with the EU.
German auto giant BMW Group has rallied. The company sold more cars in October than ever before in the month, despite a challenging economic and political situation.
French train manufacturing and rail services group Alstom has also jumped after posting encouraging first-half results.
On the other hand, banks have fallen broadly as Italian bond yields hit three-week highs. The Italian government told the European Union Tuesday it would maintain its deficit and economic growth forecasts for 2019 despite calls from the bloc’s authorities to revise its draft budget.
Miners Antofagasta, Anglo American and Glencore have fallen on concerns over slowing global growth.
British residential landlord Grainger has also tumbled after it launched a discounted share issue to buy out its Grip REIT joint venture with APG for 396 million pounds.
Cobham has also moved to the downside. The aerospace and defense firm kept its full-year expectations unchanged after posting results in line with expectations during the first ten months of the year.
In economic news, the German economy contracted at a faster than expected pace in the third quarter, marking the first decline since the first three months of 2015, preliminary figures from the Federal Statistical Office showed.
Gross domestic product declined a seasonally and calendar-adjusted 0.2 percent in the three months to September after expanding 0.5 percent in the second quarter. Economists had forecast a 0.1 percent drop.
The latest decline in GDP was the worst since the first quarter of 2013, when the economy shrank 0.3 percent. On a calendar-adjusted basis, GDP rose 1.1 percent year-on-year following a 2 percent increase in the previous quarter.
Meanwhile, U.K. inflation held steady at 2.4 percent in October compared to analyst expectations for a rise to 2.5 percent.
