PARIS: UK and Swedish stocks led declines among European peers on Tuesday after data from both countries triggered worries about high interest rates, while China-exposed shares fell as Beijing’s policy support failed to boost investor sentiment.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index closed 0.9% lower, touching an over one-month intraday low, while both London’s FTSE 100 and Stockholm stocks fell over 1%.
British government bond yields shot up after data showed domestic basic wages hit a new record growth rate, boosting chances of further Bank of England rate hikes.
“Despite signs of cooling labour market, the strength of wage growth – and in particular, private sector pay growth – will be worrying... this should leave the prospect of a 50-bps hike on the table for September” said Sanjay Raja, senior economist at Deutsche Bank in a note.
Another report showed Sweden’s pace of inflation held steady at 9.3% in July, still too high for the central bank to mull hiking rates again at its September meeting.
The China-exposed miners’ index lost 1.5%, hitting an over two-year low intraday, as base metal prices fell after data showed Chinese retail sales, industrial output and investment growing at a slower-than-expected pace.
Even as China’s central bank cut key policy rates, analysts say more support is needed to boost a rocky post-pandemic recovery.
“A lot of the bad news has been priced in and we’re in a scenario where the worst news means more support is likely to be promised, but the rate cuts are not massively a surprise and so the market isn’t reacting very strongly to it,” said Giles Coghlan, chief market analyst at HYCM.
Heavily China-exposed luxury giants LVMH, Hermes and Kering fell around 1% each, with the luxury index down 1.2%.
HSBC, Europe’s largest bank doing business in China, dropped 3.4%, the biggest drag on the STOXX 600.
Sentiment also took a hit from stronger-than-expected US retail sales data which stoked worries rates may stay higher for longer, weighing on Wall Street’s main indexes.
The benchmark STOXX 600 has come off its more than one-year highs hit in July, pressured by growing concerns over China’s economy and sharp movements in bond yields.
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