Europe close: Stocks finish flat after subdued session

(Sharecast News) - European stocks finished mixed on Friday with a subdued performance across all major indices across the continent as investors sat on their hands during a quiet day for tariff newsflow. Markets had risen early on, but had given up most of their gains by the close of play.

The Stoxx 600, which rose for the first time in five days on Thursday, inched 0.01% lower to 547, with small gains in London and Milan offset by falls in Frankfurt and a flat finish in Madrid and Paris.

Kathleen Brooks, research director at XTB, noted that while tariffs dominated (and weighed on) market sentiment earlier this week - particularly after last weekend's announcement of a 30% duty on EU imports into the US - risks have receded in recent days as Donald Trump's health has become a focus for some investors.

"The EU and Canada now face the biggest hurdle to agree better terms than the 30% and 35% tariff rates applied to their exports. The August 1st deadline is a risk event for markets, however, with the President toning down his rhetoric, markets are quick to forget tariff risks and concentrate on the positives including a resilient US economy," Brooks said.

In economic data, eurozone construction output slumped 1.7% in May following the biggest monthly surge in four years in April (+4.3%), according to data from Eurostat. The largest monthly falls in production were recorded in Germany (-3.9%), Belgium (-2.2%) and the Netherlands (-1.8%), while the strongest growth rates were seen in Slovenia (+5.4%) and Finland (+0.9%).

The ECB reported that the eurozone's seasonally adjusted current account surplus jumped to €32bn in May from €19bn the previous month.

Meanwhile, German wholesale price deflation picked up to its steepest rate in nine months in June, according to the Federal Statistical Office on Friday. The producer price index fell at a year-on-year clip of 1.3% last month, following a 1.2% drop in May, Destatis reported.

Market movers

Shares in Saab surged 17% in Stockholm after the Swedish aerospace and defence giant reported huge jump in profits in the second quarter and raised its sales guidance, as the business continues to benefit from a rise in geopolitical conflict and defence spending across Europe.

BP gained on the news that it will sell its US onshore wind business, BP Wind Energy, to LS Power, a development, investment and operating company focused on the North American power and energy infrastructure sector.

Vestas Wind Systems gained also surged after JP Morgan upgraded the Danish wind turbine maker to 'overweight' from 'neutral', while Barclays was knocked lower by a downgrade to 'neutral' from 'buy' at Citi following the run-up in the shares.