European equities fell today, Friday, ending the week sharply lower major central banks With further interest rate hikes, data on economic activity in the Eurozone failed to allay fears of a looming recession.
The Stoxx 600 index ended the trading day down 1.2%, ending the week down 3.3%.
In Thursday’s session, the index posted its biggest one-day decline since May, following the European Central Bank’s accession to the Council Federal reserve (US Central Bank) in signaling that monetary tightening will continue even if this will have repercussions on the economy.
and raise the European Central Bank, eBank of England (central)interest rates by half a percentage point, and confirmed the US Federal Reserve’s expectations for further hikes in the future to control Galloping inflation.
ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Thursday that further decisions were likely to be made to raise interest rates by 50 basis points for a while.
Italian ministers have criticized the European Central Bank after its decision to increase borrowing costs increased the financial pressure on one of the euro zone’s most indebted countries.
The main index in Italy fell 0.2% at the close, continuing the decline for the third consecutive week.
Data released on Friday showed that business activity in the euro zone contracted in December at the slowest pace in four months, but continued to contract for the sixth straight month.
The performance of healthcare stocks overshadowed the performance of the Stoxx 600 index, as shares of pharmaceutical companies Bayer and AstraZeneca fell 3.8 and 1.8%, respectively.
Industrials shares fell 4.8%, continuing to fall for the third day in a row.
(Reuters, The New Arab)
