European stock markets end midweek mostly lower

By Mucahithan Avcioglu

ISTANBUL (AA) - European stocks closed the third trading day of the week with losses, except for the UK.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index lost 0.18%, or 1.01 points, to close Wednesday at 572.29.

Germany's DAX 40 index was down 0.74% to end at 24,151.13 points, and France's CAC 40 fell 0.63% to 8,206.87.

Italy's FTSE MIB index lost 1.03% to close at 42,209.64 points.

In the plus column, Britain's FTSE 100 index rose 0.93% to 9,515 points.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday that electricity taxes should be cut to boost the bloc’s competitiveness.

On the corporate side, British lender Barclays reported a £500 million ($667 million) share buyback and increased its guidance in its third-quarter earnings on Wednesday, and its stock rose 2.3%.

Despite like-for-like sales increase of 3.4%, L'Oreal's stock ended the quarter down 6.7% as the French company's quarterly growth disappointed markets. The personal care corporation was also burdened by tariffs and weak North American sales.

On the data side, inflation in the UK remained stable at 3.8% year-on-year in September.

Euro/dollar parity rose by 0.16% to around 1.1618 as of 1645GMT.