Today’s announcement of a rise in the number of Britons unemployed continued to weigh on the country’s investors, and the FTSE 100 closed the day down 0.49 percent. Germany’s DAX was also down 0.77 percent, following Tuesday’s news that the country’s GDP growth had slowed.
In addition to the lackluster data, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel’s proposal of a financial transaction tax is thought to have hit shares in European banks. However, the CAC 40 managed to close up 0.73 percent and the FTSE MIB closed up 1.23 percent.
Luxury and retail stocks also had a largely positive day — LVMH rose 1.56 percent, Inditex closed up 1.93 percent and the Safilo Group was up 4.32 percent, while Esprit Holdings notched up a 6.34 percent rise in its share price.