European stocks close higher, barring UK, France

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - European stocks closed higher on Friday, except in the UK and France, recovering from the previous day’s losses when central banks’ aggressive rate hikes caused recession worries among investors.

The STOXX Europe 600, which includes around 90% of the market capitalization of the European market in 17 countries, was up 0.1% to finish at 403.25 after plummeting almost 2.5% on Thursday.

Germany’s DAX 30 rose by 87 points, or 0.67%, to close at 13,126, while Italy’s FTSE MIB added 62 points, or 0.29%, to end at 21,788.

Both indexes had fallen by 3.3% the previous day.

Spain’s IBEX 35 was the best performer of the day, gaining 67 points, or 0.84%, to finish at 8,145. It lost 1.2% on Thursday.

After a 3.1% dive the previous day, the UK’s FTSE was down by another 28 points, or 0.41%, to end Friday at 7,016.

While France’s CAC 40 fell 2.4% on Thursday, it shed just 3.6 points, or 0.06%, to finish the last trading day of the week at 5,882.