European stocks remained broadly stable on Wednesday, with investors generally shying away from risky bets ahead of the Federal Reserve’s long-awaited decision on interest rates and the outlook for monetary policy.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index had a negative change of 0.06%, at 472.46 points.
Frankfurt’s DAX and Paris’ CAC-40 indexes fell after hitting record intraday highs on Tuesday.
“There are a lot of risk events going on with the upcoming ECB (decision) and we just see caution ahead of that,” said Daniela Hathorn, senior market analyst at Capital.com.
Investors fully priced in the Fed’s pause on Wednesday, with US inflation data from the day before doing little to alter bets on a rate cut next year.
The focus will be on President Jerome Powell’s statements and the North American central bank’s short-term projections for clues on the timing of monetary easing.
Monetary policy decisions will be made by the European Central Bank and the Bank of England next Thursday, with both forecast to hold interest rates.
BASF and Arkema gained 4.4% and 5.5% respectively, after UBS raised its recommendation on the companies’ shares, which pushed the chemicals sector to the top of the list of biggest gainers, with a rise of 1.0%.
On the STOXX 600, the telecommunications sector lost 1.3%, with Vodafone down 2.9%.
IN LONDON, the Financial Times index advanced by 0.08%, to 7,548.44 points.
IN FRANKFURT the DAX index fell by 0.15% to 16,766.05 points.
IN PARIS, the CAC-40 index lost 0.16%, to 7,531.22 points.
IN MILAN the Ftse/Mib index collapses by 0.15%, to 30,295.69 points.
In MADRID, the Ibex-35 index recorded a decline of 0.22%, to 10,096.10 points.
In LISBON the PSI20 index increased by 0.45%, to 6,456.88 points.
Source: Terra
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