European shares marginally up; investors eye dovish ECB comments

(Reuters) – Stocks in Europe inched up on Thursday as investors looked for a dovish outlook on top of a fully priced in European Central Bank interest rate cut, while parsing a set of mixed corporate earnings.

The continent-wide STOXX 600 index gained 0.1% at 0713 GMT, following a two-day decline.

Among major gainers, Finnish bank Nordea rose 5.5%, supporting banks, after raising its forecast and announcing a new share buyback programme.

The ECB is expected to further trim its interest rates by 25 basis points on Thursday after a similar-sized cut in September.

With inflation slowing and the bloc in worse shape, money markets will look for any clues to justify their expectations of three further reductions through March 2025.

Among individual movers, Germany’s Sartorius’s shares rose 12%, topping the STOXX 600, after the company delivered its third-quarter results and confirmed its full year outlook.

Schindler, a Swiss firm important to gauge the condition of the real estate sector, saw its shares gain 2% after reporting a fall in third-quarter sales and saying that new installations fell globally.

Nescafe coffee maker Nestle fell 2.4%, after missing on sales and saying it expects customer demand to remain soft.

Nokia (HE:NOKIA) fell 3% after quarterly sales missed estimates.