BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks closed higher on Tuesday, rebounding on some hectic bargain hunting at several counters after the markets suffered four successive days of losses amid fears of a recession and aggressive policy tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
The yield on long term government bonds eased, contributing a bit to market's recovery. Data showing an improvement in German economic sentiment helped as well.
The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 0.68%. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 gained 0.37%, Germany's DAX surged up 1.15% and France's CAC 40 advanced 0.51%, while Switzerland's SMI gained 0.85%.
Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and Turkey closed with solid gains.
Greece, Iceland, Ireland and Norway ended marginally up. Czech Republic and Poland closed weak, while Spain ended flat.
In the UK market, Melrose Industries, Phoenix Group Holdings, Hargreaves Lansdown, Flutter Entertainment, Schrodders, Barratt Developments, Hikma Pharmaceuticals, Next, Persimmon, Segro and Smurfit Kappa Holdings gained 2 to 4%.
Aveva Group, Berkeley Group Holdings, Smith (DS), ABRDN and Standard Chartered also moved up sharply.
IAG drifted down 3.47%. Airtel Africa shed about 2.7%, while Informa, Endeavour Mining, Avast, Auto Trader Group, Barclays, Whitbread, Rentokil Initial and Smith & Nephew declined 1 to 2.3%.
In the German market, Bayer rallied more than 5% after reporting stronger than expected earnings in the latest quarter. Henkel, Brenntag, Deutsche Post, Siemens, Zalando, BASF, Siemens Healthineers, Covestro, Continental and Daimler gained 2 to 3.5%.
Deutsche Bank, Allianz, Merck, Munich RE, Fresenius Medical Care and Symrise also ended with strong gains.
MTU Aero Engines, Fresenius, HelloFresh, RWE and Qiagen ended sharply lower.
In the French market, Faurecia climbed 3.3%. BNP Paribas, Unibail Rodamco, Legrand, Valeo, Schneider Electric, Veolia, Michelin, L'Oreal, Pernod Ricard and LVMH gained 1 to 2.3%.
Airbus Group gained more than 1% after the aircraft manufacturer reported receiving 98 new orders and delivering 48 aircraft in April.
Essilor tumbled nearly 5%. Danone, WorldLine, Air France-KLM and Thales ended lower by 1 to 2%.
Shares of Swedish multi-national tobacco company Swedish Match shares soared 25%. The stocks rallied after the company confirmed a takeover approach from larger U.S. rival Philip Morris.
In economic news, Germany's economic confidence improved in May but remained at a very low level as the economy is expected to continue to deteriorate in the near-term in the face of the war in Ukraine and the coronavirus restrictions in China, survey results from the ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research showed on Tuesday.
The ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment unexpectedly rose to -34.3 in May from -41.0 in April. The reading was forecast to fall to -42.0.
Meanwhile, the current situation indicator fell by 5.7 points -36.5 in May. This was the third consecutive decline since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. The expected reading was -35.0.
UK retail sales declined in April as consumers reduced their spending amid rising cost of living, data compiled by the British Retail Consortium and the advisory services firm KPMG, showed on Tuesday.
Total sales were down 0.3% in April from the last year, the first fall since January 2021. At the same time, like-for-like sales decreased 1.7% annually.
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