European markets close slightly lower as traders monitor China’s Covid policy; HSBC up 5% on RBC deal

Britain’s gilt market is “not back to normal” after the Bank of England intervened on Sept. 28, according to Governor Andrew Bailey, who spoke to a committee of lawmakers on Tuesday.

The governor said the bank did not want to buy pegged gilts, but “needed to resolve” issues triggered by former Prime Minister Liz Truss’ mini-budget.

The gilt market was “less than an hour after hitting a serious snag” when the bank stepped in, the governor added.

The Ryanair CEO said Christmas bookings were “very strong” when he spoke to reporters in Brussels.

“This winter is amazing…Christmas is very strong,” said Michael O’Leary.

O’Leary’s comments come after rival airline easyJet said its holiday demand was holding up, despite mounting pressure on household budgets.

—Hannah Ward-Glenton

Francesco Starace, CEO of Enel, told CNBC’s Steve Sedgwick that energy markets face “extreme volatility” for one or two years.

Starace spoke about the Goldman Sachs Carbonomics event.

Aroundtown Property shares fell 7% after the German property company announced its results for the first nine months of 2022.

Aroundtown made a net profit of 578 million euros ($598 million), which was roughly in line with forecasts.

—Hannah Ward-Glenton

“China is underappreciated by the rest of the world right now, but the speed of reopening will be critical,” Virginie Maisonneuve, Global CIO of Equity at Allianz told CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe.”

European markets remained stable on Tuesday as investors consider the impacts of ongoing lockdown protests across China.

Germany’s consumer price index fell 0.5% month-on-month in November for a 10% year-on-year increase, according to flash estimates from the federal statistics agency released on Tuesday.

This figure was below consensus forecasts of a monthly decline of 0.2% and an annual increase of 10.4%. The figures will fuel expectations that eurozone inflation will post its first decline since mid-2020 later this week.

-Elliot Smith

HSBC shares soared more than 5% by mid-afternoon to top the Stoxx 600 after the UK-based bank agreed to sell its Canadian operations to Royal Bank of Canada for 13.5 billion Canadian dollars ($10.4 billion).

At the bottom of Europe’s blue chip index, shares of Aroundtown fell more than 6% after the Luxembourg-registered property company’s nine-month results.

-Elliot Smith

Economic sentiment in the eurozone rebounded a little more than expected in November, improving for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

The economic sentiment indicator produced by the European Commission rose to 93.7 in November from 92.7 in October, slightly above consensus projections of 93.5 in a Reuters poll of economists.

Confidence in manufacturing deteriorated sharply, but was offset by a sharp rise in confidence in services, while consumer and business inflation expectations also fell.

-Elliot Smith

Swiss credit shares slid to a new record low on Tuesday as investors offloaded rights to new shares of the troubled Swiss lender.

Shares fell 3.4% late morning to trade at just over 2.9 Swiss francs as rights fell on their second day of trading in Zurich, while credit default swaps five-year credit bonds – a form of insurance on the company’s bonds – have reached a high level. absolute record.

Last week, shareholders approved the bank’s planned $4.2 billion capital raise, which aims to fund a massive strategic overhaul after years of underperformance and non-compliance by investment banks. .

—Elliot Smith

Chinese health authorities said officials were “closely monitoring” Covid developments when asked if protests in the region would lead to changes in its zero-Covid policy. CNBC’s Karen Tso and Geoff Cutmore discuss the market’s reaction to the press conference.

ASM International shares soared 6.5% in early trading to top the Stoxx 600 after the Dutch semiconductor company raised its fourth-quarter forecast.

At the bottom of the index, the British private equity firm Bridgepoint Group slid 4.7% after media reports suggested the company was considering a $1 billion acquisition of energy transition investor Energy Capital Partners.

The Chinese government is unlikely to make any sudden changes to its zero Covid policy as it will lead to chaos, Professor Wang Gungwu of the National University of Singapore said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia.”

“If you change the policy suddenly, I think the damage and the consequences would be even worse – it would be really chaotic because I think the spread of Covid will be absolutely unprecedented,” Wang said.

He added that he expects Chinese leader Xi Jinping to make adjustments at more local levels to quell public dissent.

Wang said Xi didn’t want to officially admit that “the policy has been bad for quite a while,” but he also couldn’t change it immediately.

– Jihye Lee

Oil prices rose ahead of a news conference to be held by China’s State Council as investors continue to monitor developments – paring some losses seen on Monday, when it hit record lows. lowest in nearly a year.

West Texas Intermediate futures climbed 1.76% to settle at $78.59 a barrel, while Brent crude futures climbed 2.28% to settle at 85.00 $ per barrel.

However, oil markets could “misjudge news of China’s lockdown,” Rystad Energy wrote in a note.

“[The latest lockdowns’] the likely effect on China’s near-term oil demand, particularly in transportation, is likely to be minor,” the note added, citing the company’s own research on actual traffic activity in China.

Even with daily Covid cases continuing to rise, cities like Shanghai have not shown a slowdown in road traffic activity, according to Rystad Energy’s own research.

— Lee Ying Shan

It is “critical” for investors to examine valuations at this time as a recession looms and inflation looks likely to continue, said Steven Glass, managing director of Pella Funds Management.

In this environment, Glass picked a list of nine stocks that he said “seem particularly cheap given their growth prospects.”

CNBC Pro subscribers can learn more here.

—Weizhen Tan

European markets are heading for a mixed picture on Tuesday as investors watch China closely amid speculation the government may make changes to its strict zero-Covid policy.

Britain’s FTSE index is expected to open 46 points higher at 7,494, Germany’s DAX down 3 points at 14,401, France’s CAC up 2 points at 6,675 and Italy’s FTSE MIB up 27 points at 24 523, according to data from IG.

Earnings come from Easyjet and data releases include Eurozone consumer confidence and business climate data for November.

—Holly Ellyatt